Several groups of people in China are so incensed with an international court ruling against the country, that they're taking their anger out on what they view as symbols of America: Apple and KFC.

Videos of people smashing iPhones have started to go viral in the country, and there are angry mobs protesting outside KFC outlets in at least 17 cities, local news reports say.

Here, a group of students in a dorm are smashing iPhones:

This guy is smashing an iPhone with a hammer:

On Weibo, users are also posting their photos of purportedly smashed iPhones.

This user says: "Take out your iPhone. If you don't smash it, you aren't Chinese!"

Outside KFC outlets in cities such as Hangzhou and Changsha, people are yelling and holding signs telling "American goods" to "get out of China."

The police in some of the cities have had to be dispatched to maintain order.

Image: weibo

Image: WEIBO

Image: WEIBO

Image: WEIBO

What are they angry about?

Their anger is directed at the U.S., which they see as the Western force backing the smaller Asian countries with which China is in dispute with over the ownership of a group of islands in the South China Sea.

China has been in an ongoing dispute with Asian countries like the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam over the "Spratly Islands" and the waterways around them. China says it has historical ownership of the area.

But last week, an international tribunal ruled in favour of the Philippines, essentially awarding some of the islands off its coast to the smaller nation, and overturning China's claims to them.

"Patriotism"

While the dispute is with the Philippines, many in China see the ruling as anti-Chinese. So they're demonstrating "patriotism" by boycotting American goods, they say.

This is a big deal, least of all because China loves Apple.

This is a big deal because China loves Apple.

Apple has the largest smartphone share of China, which this year overtook the U.S. as the world's largest iPhone market.

On Apple Pay's first day in China in February, the crush of people signing up for the payment service overwhelmed Apple's servers.

KFC has experienced similar growth in China. Owner Yum! runs over 5,000 outlets in the country, and KFC brings in three-quarters of the company's China profit across its brands, which include Pizza Hut.

When the tribunal decision was passed, state-run media reacted angrily to the decision, and ran statements from the government rejecting it.

But the official Xinhua news wire is now persuading people not to take out their anger on property. In an op-ed published Tuesday, the government-owned paper acknowledged the indignation felt by the Chinese, but denounced "irrational" acts as a way of expressing patriotism.

It added that several years ago after a similar territorial dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands (also known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan), people took to the streets to smash Japanese cars, resulting in numerous injuries and damaged property.

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