Why target firms for the sins of US and Philippines?

US and Philippine businesses and products, from the American fast food chain KFC and Apple's iPhones to dried mangoes from the Philippines, have become the targets of online calls for mass boycott in the week following the ruling of the arbitral tribunal in the case initiated by Manila against Beijing over the South China Sea dispute.

The boycott call reportedly prompted a number of youths to assemble in front of a KFC outlet in Laoting county, North China's Hebei province, on Sunday where they tried to dissuade people from entering the restaurant. The video of this event has hit the internet but its authenticity is yet to be proved. There is no denying, however, that the online call to boycott Philippine and US goods is related to the arbitration case because those two countries were behind the move on the South China Sea issue.

The boycott call is reminiscent of the mass protests in 2012, when China-Japan relations soured because of their dispute over Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. During the protests, Li Jianli, the driver of a Toyota car in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, was hit by a young protestor in the head and was paralyzed in the right side of his body.