Photo shows a Luckin Coffee shop in Shanghai, east China. Photo: Xinhua

Luckin Coffee said on Sunday it has suspended an employee from the island of Taiwan for "publishing inappropriate comments" on the island and the Chinese mainland on Facebook. The company apologized for the incident, and vowed to take a firm stance on safeguarding China's national unity. 

Screenshots of a few inappropriate Facebook posts of the Luckin employee surnamed Wu circulated on Sina Weibo on Sunday morning, drawing a backlash from Chinese netizens. According to the screenshots, Wu repeatedly referred to the island of Taiwan as an independent country, and said that Taiwan is  being repressed by the Chinese mainland. 

As shown in the screenshots, Wu's pro-secession comments were made from January 2016 to April 2020. As of press time, Wu's Facebook homepage and the posts were not accessible to the public. 

Regarding the incident, Luckin Coffee published a statement on Sunday afternoon, saying that Wu had been suspended from Luckin after an investigation. 

"Luckin Coffee takes a firm stance on the principle of the national unity and sincerely apologizes to the public for the confusion caused by this incident," wrote Luckin in the statement. 

Netizens supported Luckin's prompt response. One Weibo user wrote under Luckin's statement, "There are some stances that must be taken. Fire those who do not."

Luckin Coffee, a Chinese domestic rival to Starbucks, was caught up in a huge controversy earlier this year. In June, the NASDAQ decided to delist the company after a serious financial scandal. However, 4,000 of its stores across China have continued normal operations. 

Global Times