French supermarket chain Carrefour has canceled its three-day sale planned for the May Day holiday on the Chinese mainland, which will cut 20 percent off its sales volume on this market during that period, said a media manager of Carrefour.

"Carrefour has canceled the week's advertising activities related to the promotion, including the print media, broadcast and circulars during the coming May Day holiday period," said Chen Bo, the media manager of Carrefour Great China's headquarters in Shanghai, in a fax reply to Xinhua.

A long-planned promotion of textiles and other items was also delayed, Chen said.

"We estimate that sales over the May Day holiday will decrease 20 percent from previous years," Chen said.

Carrefour has 112 stores on the Chinese mainland.

Demonstrations at Carrefour outlets against "Tibet independence" broke out on April 19 in a few Chinese cities, including Beijing, Xi'an, Hefei, Qingdao, Wuhan and Kunming. The rallies spread the next day to Jinan and Harbin.

Protesters numbered more than 1,000 in most cities and reached about 2,000 in Wuhan.

The protesters waved Five-Star Red Flags and chanted "Oppose Tibet independence", "Let France apologize", "Support the Olympics" and "Condemn Tibet secessionists in France tearing up the Five-Star Red Flag".

The demonstrations ceased on Monday.

Carrefour has been accused by Chinese Internet users of supporting the Dalai Lama's group, a claim that Carrefour China denied in a statement last week.

"Only a few outlets of Carrefour were affected [by demonstrations] across China and we believe it will be temporary," said Chen in an e-mail to Xinhua late on Sunday.

Many newspapers and Internet portals, including the "anti-cnn" website and the People's Daily newspaper, have published statements calling for rational expressions of patriotism.

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2008)