Chinese Consumer Boycotts Tracker
Tracker Overview:
Against the backdrop of persistent commercial risks to doing business in China, Morning Consult’s Chinese Consumer Boycotts Tracker provides foreign multinationals serving Chinese consumers with insight into the likelihood and drivers of Chinese consumer boycotts — as well as mitigation strategies — alongside data on Chinese demand for foreign-made goods and services and related purchasing considerations.
The tracker is intended to facilitate scenario planning and risk management efforts undertaken by corporate executives at foreign companies doing business in China or otherwise serving Chinese consumers, both prior to boycotts' emergence and when they arise.
Key Takeaways
A majority of Chinese adults say they would be willing to boycott a foreign company doing business in China over the next 12 months, extending a marked 2024 rebound in Chinese consumers' boycott propensity. The rebound has coincided with renewed U.S. efforts to ban TikTok, and has largely undone the softening of boycott sentiment that followed U.S. President Joe Biden's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the November 2023 APEC summit.
Consumers cite unethical corporate behavior and — in a nod to geopolitical dynamics — criticism of China by foreign firms as the primary drivers of their decision to engage in boycotts, followed closely by environmental and sustainability concerns.
Issuing public statements expressing support for or otherwise praising China is the most surefire way for foreign companies to extract themselves from boycotts when they occur, followed closely by simply removing offending products from shelves. For companies issuing public apologies, statements made by the CEO will be more effective than statements made by corporate spokespeople, with statements issues via traditional (as opposed to social) media carrying the most weight.
While non-trivial shares of Chinese consumers are willing to boycott foreign companies, a solid majority of them — led by higher-income and college-educated segments of the population — remain interested in purchasing the goods and services they offer, raising both the risks and the rewards for foreign firms. Quality, product safety, and affordability lead consumers' purchasing considerations among most core demographic groups, followed closely by strong company-China ties, highlighting the potential advantages of a well-managed relationship with Beijing.
Data Downloads
Morning Consult Pro+ subscribers are able to access the data sets that power our reports and analysis. Learn more and get access.
Boycott Propensity
Chinese consumers remain broadly willing to boycott foreign firms amid persistent geopolitical tensions involving China and its trading partners. The chart below provides our latest reading on the shares of Chinese consumers willing to do so, and the intensity of their boycott sentiment.
Chinese consumer boycott propensity
Drivers & Mitigation Strategies
Amid persistent risk of Chinese consumer boycotts targeting foreign firms, the charts below report our latest readings on the types of corporate behavior that are most likely to land foreign companies in hot water, and the mitigation strategies that are most likely to succeed at regaining consumers’ favor.
Chinese consumer boycott drivers
Chinese consumer boycott mitigation strategies
Consumer Demand & Purchasing Considerations
While non-trivial shares of Chinese consumers are willing to boycott foreign companies, many remain interested in purchasing the goods and services they offer. The charts below report our trended data on Chinese consumers' demand for foreign-made goods and services by demographic group, along with our latest readings on related purchasing considerations.
Chinese consumer demand for foreign-made goods and services
Chinese consumers’ purchasing considerations for foreign-made goods and services
Companion Research & Analysis
- U.S.-China Relations Tracker: A companion tracker which provides core metrics on Americans' views of bilateral relations, including economic and military tensions and key trade, investment and policy issues.
- Counter/Consensus Email Briefing: Morning Consult Counter/Consensus is a biweekly, publicly available briefing that provides pithy, empirically-grounded forecasts derived from our political data assets, and frequently touches on key issues in U.S.-China relations.
Companion Data Assets for Pro+ Subscribers
- Trended Data: Trended data for all charts featured in this tracker among select demographics is available for Morning Consult Pro+ subscribers via the “Data Downloads” section of this page. See “Commercial Data Access” below for additional details on access to demographic data beyond that presented in this tracker and companion data file.
Supplementary Commercial Data Access
All data featured in this tracker derives from a monthly tracking survey fielded in China from February 2022 onwards, with broader topical and demographic coverage available for enterprise or public sector use. Contact us with inquiries regarding commercial access.
Methodology
Data featured in this tracker derives from monthly surveys conducted among representative samples of roughly 1,000 Chinese adults, each with an unweighted margin of error of +/-3 percentage points. The survey has fielded monthly since February 2022. Income thresholds employed in charts are as follows: Lower (HHI under 10,000); middle (HHI 10,000-24,999); upper (HHI 25,000-49,999); elite (HHI 49,999+).
All data was collected through Morning Consult’s proprietary survey research capabilities. All interviews are conducted online. Data is weighted to approximate representative samples of internet-using Chinese adults.
Consult our Global Political Intelligence Methodology Primer for additional details on sampling and data collection procedures, weighting and representativeness, margins of error, and question wording for this survey and our broader Political Intelligence data product.
About Morning Consult
Morning Consult is a global decision intelligence company changing how modern leaders make smarter, faster, better decisions. The company pairs its proprietary high-frequency data with applied artificial intelligence to better inform decisions on what people think and how they will act. Learn more at morningconsult.com.
Email [email protected] to speak with a member of the Morning Consult team.
Jason I. McMann leads geopolitical risk analysis at Morning Consult. He leverages the company’s high-frequency survey data to advise clients on how to integrate geopolitical risk into their decision-making. Jason previously served as head of analytics at GeoQuant (now part of Fitch Solutions). He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University’s Politics Department. Follow him on Twitter @jimcmann. Interested in connecting with Jason to discuss his analysis or for a media engagement or speaking opportunity? Email [email protected].
