The Palace Museum made its first response to the public on Tuesday about the Starbucks outlet at the venue. It said a decision about whether the Starbucks outlet will be removed from the attraction will be made no later than June. Negotiations are now in progress, Beijing Morning Post reports.

Early this week, a blog by China Central Television host Rui Chenggang aroused a wide-ranging dispute six years after Starbucks first opened an outlet in the Forbidden City.

In his article, Rui Chenggang stated the Starbucks at Forbidden City is a joke among western tycoons. He urges the Starbucks chairman and CEO to get the cafe out of the Forbidden City.

However, Starbucks CEO Jim Donald replied to Rui Chenggang, saying the company has always cooperated to respect and preserve Chinese cultural heritage while doing business there. In fact, it was the Chinese side that invited the chain to open a shop in the Forbidden City initially.

Palace Museum spokesman Feng Naien emphasized that allowing Starbucks to do business in the Forbidden City is not for profit, but meet consumer demands.

"Negotiations are in progress for a solution," Feng Naien told the Beijing Morning Post reporter. They have not disregarded public voices concerning the Starbucks outlet in the Forbidden City. The result will be determined within the first half of this year.

Starbucks is not the only American business facing a dilemma in the Chinese market. During the Chinese Political Consultative Conference in 2000, Beijing CPPCC member Ma Yutian said foreign fast-food restaurants run counter to the imperial garden style. Three years later, in 2003, Kentucky Fried Chicken ceased its 10-year business in the imperial Beihai Park.