A Beijing clothing shop in the capital's "Russiatown" district is being criticized for putting up a sign banning Chinese customers from the store, reports Beijing Youth Daily Times.

"No admittance for Chinese," read the sign in the storefront's window, which elicited a lot of angry comments from Netizens.

Like Us on Facebook

An employee at the store said that they only do business with foreigners and they tried to use the notice to stop Chinese peers from stealing their clothing designs.

However, another employee told the newspaper that the notice has been there for nearly a week, and that it was the result of a foreign customer's purse allegedly being stolen by a Chinese customer. The customer accused the store of conspiring with the thief and demanded $5,000 in compensation.

"It's too radical," another store owner operating on Yabao Road told the Global Times. "However, some competitors do come to my store and plagiarize designs, which has forced me to reduce my prices." 

The store is located on Beijing's Yabao Road, which is home to a large wholesale marketplace that sells clothing and accessories mainly to foreigners, particularly those from Russia.

But the store's sign is not be legal, experts say.

"The store's move violated consumer protection laws and may be discriminating against Chinese customers," Liu Guofu, a law professor from the Beijing Institute of Technology told Global Times.

Said Liu Junhai, a law professor at the Renmin University of China: "It went against the principles of equality and fairness and harmed our national pride."

As it turns out, this was not the first incident of anti-Chinese sentiment by Yabao Road merchants. In 2003, many stores in the market reportedly posted signs that read "No Tours Allowed" and "No Entry Unless Invited" in Chinese. However, those same signs contained Russian text that read "Welcome."

TagsBeijing Clothing Store Bans Chinese Customers, Yabao Road, Russiatown