We have seen enough stupidity in the recent anti-Japanese activities responding to the dispute over Diaoyu Island. Rioters have smashed Japanese cars in several Chinese cities, and severely injured at least one owner in Xi’an. Businesses with Japanese signs, most of them owned by Chinese, have been targeted, some looted and many forced to close. A Toyota dealership in Qingdao was torched. Threat of violence has forced many ordinary owners of Japanese cars to give up driving for days. Logos of Japanese cars have been covered or altered.

Above: A Toyota dealership in Qingdao was set on fire by anti-Japanese protesters

Above: A Nissan logo changed to show patriotism

Then Hawtai Auto jumped in, like a buffoon, launching the so-called "patriotic" version of its Boliger (B35) SUV. To loot a burning hourse, only to hurt itself.

The same crappy car, developed as a cheap imitator of Cayenne, is now wrapped in the national flag of red China. For several days the car has been promoted on the front page of several online auto media through paid news articles. This seems the last resort from an irresponsible company known for lying about its sales to save the model with only 2,351 deliveries in the first eight months of this year.

Fortunately, there are enough sensible consumers in China. Here are some of their comments we found on Weibo.com (China’s twitter):

"Sell crappy cars under a patriotic skin. That is what traitors do."

"A stupid car for stupid people."

"Can Hawtai make it uglier?"

"Doesn’t the Hawtai logo imitate that of Honda? Shouldn’t Hawtai change it to show patriotism?"

"’Patriotic’? A true patriot should build quality cars with Chinese-developed technologies rather than copying others."

"Why does the ‘patriotic’ car bear a foreign name ‘Boliger’? Why name it after the Italian town of Bolgheri if Hawtai loves China so much?"

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