Quoting French newspaper Le Figaro, Chinese netizens have suggested that Sanofi Aventis (SA) is the largest sponsor of Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), the NGO that has spearheaded the French movement calling for boycott of Beijing Olympics over a range of issues including Tibet independence, human rights and press freedom.

The call for boycott seems to be gaining some momentum in recent days with leading Chinese portal Sina.com placing one of such forum articles on its home page, and the article made top headlines on a number of leading Chinese portals including Sina.com and Sohu.com under news sections related to Tibet on May 6. The development may lead to increasing public attention on SA and its support of RSF.

The forum article on the home page of Sina.com alleges that SA pays Euro 400,000 to RSF annually, and the president of SA has a close personal relationship with the founder of RSF.

It says that SA has three companies in China with around Euro 200 million in sales and 1.7% market share. The article also claims that the prices of SA’s drugs are extremely high and the company has high expectations for the growth of its Chinese business.

A number of SA’s drug products were identified by the article including Glargine, Amaryl and Aprovel. Some other forum article also listed the Shanghai office address and phone number of SA.

The forum article calls for boycott of SA’s drug products by both hospitals and patients until the company stops supporting anti-China groups.

 

The article has been copied and quoted on many different Chinese forums and websites.