K-pop boy band BTS Photo: AFP
Samsung has removed South Korean group BTS's-related products from its official stores on Chinese e-commerce platforms, after the band's remarks on the Korean War angered Chinese netizens, who said the K-pop group's one-sided attitude to the war negates history.
Users on popular Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com on Sunday found that BTS-edition smartphone and earphones - Galaxy S20+ 5G BTS Edition and Galaxy Buds+ BTS Edition, disappeared on Samsung's official store on the e-commerce platform.
However, a member of staff from the store's pre-sales services said on Monday that the two products are no longer in stock.
The same products also disappeared from Samsung's official store on Tmall, another popular e-commerce platform in China.
Some netizens on Sina Weibo applauded the move, with one user commenting "it proves Samsung cares about the Chinese market."
Italian sports brand FILA also deleted a promotion post by the band on its Sina Weibo account.
After receiving the General James A. Van Fleet Award, an award celebrating US-Korea relations, the team leader of BTS said: "we will always remember the history of pain that our two nations shared together and the sacrifices of countless men and women."
The two nations he is referring to are the US and South Korea. Many Chinese netizens pointed out that the speech plays up to US netizens, despite the fact that the country played the role of aggressor in the war.
Some Chinese fans of the group declared they would stop chasing the K-pop group.
"There were thousands of Chinese soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the war. You are South Korean people and you can say that, but I am Chinese so I decided to be angry and quit the boy band's fan club to express my strong attitude," one BTS fan surnamed Li told the Global Times on Sina Weibo on Sunday.
Responding to the reactions of some netizens, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian called on Monday for people to: "learn the lessons of history, look into the future, cherish peace and promote friendliness," adding that this "should be our common pursuit and is worth our joint efforts."
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), also known as the Korean War, with a great number of Chinese people commemorating those who sacrificed their lives during the war.
Chinese netizens on Monday cherished the memory of hero Qiu Shaoyun who lost his life during the war on the same day in 1952.
A series of remembrance events were also held in recent days, with media reporting on Saturday that the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in China's border city of Dandong, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, had been reopened after renovations.