Have a read of this post from the Wall Street Journal's China Journal blog on some of the communciation issues Coke is having around its attempted takeover of the Huiyuan juice company in China:

More damaging may be the allegations that Coke is trying to silence critics of the deal in China, which were published in this Chinese language article from the Beijing Morning Post. The origin of those allegations appears to lie in some ill-advised statements made by lawyer Qian Weiqing in an Internet discussion last week, in which he offered a pessimistic opinion about Coke’s chances of winning public and regulatory approval for the Huiyuan purchase. Qian is a senior partner at the Dacheng Law Firm, which counts Coke as a client, and within a few days all references to Qian and his statements were subsequently removed from the Web site where they had appeared. Coke has been blamed for pressuring Qian and his firm to retract the statements– a charge that the company strongly denies.

It's a reminder that western companies trying to acquire well-known Chinese brands are almost always behind the PR eight-ball and should therefore prepare in advance for the backlash and make sure that all potential spokespeople are briefed and anyone not authorized to speak stays silent.

Of course, it's hardly a one-way problem. Chinese companies attempting to acquire especially American companies face similar problems, as anyone who followed the attempted Haier-Maytag deal or Lenovo's tricky path to aquiring IBM's PC business will recall, so we westerners shouldn't feel particularly aggrieved.

Now, from around the Chinese Internet, some of the caricatures and cartoons making the rounds (inspired by one particularly fine example on the WSJ blog). You may detect a certain theme:

Coke and Huiyuan

From Yangcheng Evening News via Sina Finance.

 

Coke and Huiyuan

From "Hello Taiwan's" reprint of a Xinhua article.

 

Coke and Huiyuan 

From China Economics Web (and as spotted on the WSJ blog).

 

Coke and Huiyuan 

From XKB.com via SinaFinance.

 

 Coke and Huiyuan

From West China City Daily.

 

Coke and Huiyuan 

From a Xinhua article on QQ finance.

 

Coke and Huiyuan

From China Industrial and Commercial Times via Linkshop.

Note that some of these images may not originate in the stories they are linked to here. Just pointing out where I (or rather, Baidu) found them.

Updated to add:

It's worth mentioning that this situation is haunted by the ghost of Danone's troubled relationship with another Chinese beverage company, Wahaha. Danone is a significant minority shareholder in Huiyuan and agreed to sell its stake to Coca-Cola.

Update 2:

See also Silicon Hutong's post on this (Typepad - blocked in China). A choice for the Chinese government in terms of the future of M&A in China.