CHINA:CHRISTIAN DIOR was yesterday scrambling to avoid a Chinese consumer backlash over Tibet after actress Sharon Stone, who is a model for the group, suggested the Sichuan earthquake might have been retribution for Beijing's policies in Tibet.
The luxury goods group apologised to its Chinese customers yesterday after the 50-year-old American actress said the earthquake in Sichuan province two weeks ago, which has killed at least 68,109 people, was the result of "karma" from China's policies in Tibet.
Ms Stone made her comments during a visit to the Cannes film festival last week. She told a Hong Kong TV channel: "And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma - when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?"
The comments gained wider attention after the footage was posted on YouTube and similar Chinese video-sharing sites.
Christian Dior, which has 68 outlets in China, has made heavy use of images of the actress since she signed in 2005 to be the face of the group's Capture Totale skincare line.
A Beijing newspaper reported yesterday that photographs of Stone had been taken down from Dior branches in several of the city's malls. - (Financial Times service)