Forbidden Starbucks, Hidden Dragon

FAO: Xing Ba Ke, 1 Dragon Pavement, Hall of Supreme and Heavenly Harmony, Forbidden City, Middle Kingdom.

The Emperors of China - mediators between the Sky and Earth - were, for the most part, keen on inventions. Marco Polo's horological prowess gave him pretty good access to the son of Heaven. Clocks were cool. Had the emperor had access to a Starbuck's coffee frother, I think he might have been just as impressed. Too bad the inimitable Seattle baristas are a few centuries too late.

Rui Chenggang, the blogger behind Why Starbucks needs to get out of the Forbidden City has sparked off the controversy in China - and now more than half a million have signed his petitition. He makes a pretty good case for getting rid of Amex from China's cultural heritage too: "The introduction to every site says: 'Made possible by American Express.' It is as if the Mona Lisa had a label saying: 'Made possible by the People's Bank of China.'"

Admittedly, the Forbidden City - all 178 acres of it - hosting millions of Western visitors a year, could do with a Western coffee shop. Yet the problem, of course, in having a Starbucks in Beijing's Forbidden City goes way beyond the practical.

"But please don't interpret this as an act of nationalism," says Rui, "It is just about we Chinese people respecting ourselves. I actually like drinking Starbucks coffee. I am just against having one in the Forbidden City."

On the issue of Starbucks I think Rui has a point, but there is an emerging trend in China - a trend worryingly mirrored in countries such as Russia - namely, a growing and powerful sense of national infallibility. National belief.

While I was editor of the student paper at the LSE it was something I came across time and time again from Chinese students. In response to an article we printed exposing the Chinese government for threatening the school authorities (after a talk by two 'defectors' to the students' union) I recieved countless letters berating my shamelessness and slander against China - I was even labelled a racist for giving an 'anti-chinese' platform to these 'defectors', who, I was told, were no doubt funded by the Falun Gong. The same happened again this year after the paper published a comment article on Chinese human rights abuses.

Will Hutton's op-ed in the Guardian yesterday I think misses the mark. "The lesson Deng drew - that the party can remain in Leninist control of a market economy that needs no democratic institutions -was as wrong as Mao's." In fact, through fostering a powerful and spirited sense of nationalism, the communist party can and has retained easy control over peoples lives - even in a rapidly modernising market environment. Nationalism has proved a far more powerful solvent than freedom and you wont find liberty in a latte.