Chinese People are Smashing Their iPhones in Protest of the UN’s South China Sea Ruling

On Tuesday, the landmark decision by Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague upheld Manila’s assertion that China’s encroachment into the South China Sea is excessive and has penetrated into the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

To express their dissatisfaction on the ruling favoring the Philippines, some “patriotic” Chinese netizens decided to smash their iPhones and post them on social media, reports Shanghaiist.

Even before the ruling was announced, the individuals have already threatened to boycott products from countries which would choose to support the UN’s ruling. They have warned against profits from those sales funding “enemy” armies.

A Weibo post that has since gone viral announced : “Let’s all start boycotting today. Do not buy goods from South Korea, Japan, America and the Philippines. Do not travel there. I cannot fight on the front lines, but I will not be the foolish citizen who provides bullets for the enemy.”

To validate their point, some users challenged the patriotic netizens to smash their iPhones since the product comes from a known Philippines ally, the United States. Naturally, many nationalistic web users followed.

However, the validity of some posts remained suspect as many of the photos were posted from iPhones themselves.

Some netizens chose to skip the iPhone smashing since the phones aren’t cheap and it’d be like burning their own money at that point — a  sensible point that probably should have been raised earlier for some of the less thinking bunch. Many did, however, promised to refrain from buying the iPhone 7 when it comes out.

China has become Apple’s second largest market last year, earning a total revenue of $12.5 billion. With the iPhone 7’s impending release in early September, it is yet to be seen if the patriotic Chinese netizens will stay true to their word and make a convincing impact.