Photo: cnsphoto

Burger King China, the Chinese mainland operator of the multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, made a public apology on Sina Weibo Sunday on behalf of the US brand's Taiwan branch for using "Wuhan pneumonia" to refer to COVID-19 in a post on Facebook Wednesday. 

However, such a move has worked quite to the contrary, and failed to quell public anger, with many pointing out that the ringleader of the case, has yet to show any signs of regret.

According to a screenshot of the post made by @BurgerkingTW, allegedly the official account of the Burger King operator in Taiwan, made a racist reference to COVID-19 in a post to promote its non-contact delivery services.. 

The post cannot be found on its Facebook page as of press time, and no explanation has been given for its removal.

Amongst comments on another post made by the account, there are still many users demanding an apology from the firm.

"Although Burger King China and the operator in Taiwan are different operating firms, we feel embarrassed about the Taiwan operator's irresponsible remarks," said Burger King China on its Sina Weibo account on Sunday.

As a member of the Burger King family, we feel deeply sorry for the irresponsible statements made by the regional branch operator, it said, while stressing that the company has been fighting the epidemic with everyone shoulder to shoulder, by not only donating 1 million yuan to Wuhan, but also delivering food to workers on the frontline, despite business being affected by the epidemic. 

The mainland branch also said it has contacted the responsible personnel from the Taiwan regional operator to urge the latter to delete the racist post at once, and apologize for its actions. 

The discussion going on under the hashtag "#Burgerkingapologies"has gathered some 150 million views and 7,500 comments as of press time on Weibo.

"The use of the racist term just upset me big-time, and I will cancel all my future orders from Burger King," read one comment among a few expressing their intentions to boycott the brand.

However, more netizens showed their reasoning, pointing out that these are two totally different companies and the mainland firm deserves our understanding and support as it stood up and made a due apology for their Taiwan operators' fault" wrote another. 

Netizens also called for the Taiwan regional operator to stand up and say sorry itself, saying that " deleting the post secretly is a cowardly move and they should own their mistakes.."

The deliberate use of the terms of "Wuhan virus/ pneumonia" or "Chinese virus" especially after the WHO officially named the epidemic COVID-19, should be considered racist, as it helps promote nothing but hatred and makes no contribution to mankind's worldwide battle against the disease, observers said.

Burger King entered the mainland market in 2005 with its first franchise opening in Shanghai, now the US brand has more than 1,000 stores in the Chinese mainland with 25,000 employees serving 150 million customers every year.

Global Times