Finger Lickin' Chinese

(Shanghai, China) Food giant KFC, owned by Kentucky-based Yum Brands Inc., recently opened a milestone franchise in Shanghai, bringing the total KFC outlets in China to 1,500. The new outlet is a drive-in, only the second drive-in in all of China after Beijing. Interestingly, Beijing also has the distinction of hosting the largest KFC restaurant in the world in Tiananmen Square.

It's taken KFC seventeen years to grow to the benchmark 1,500 stores with its expansion growing at an increasing rate. Approximately 300 restaurants were opened in the last ten months. KFC and other Yum Brand outlets are now in 200 Chinese cities.

Notably, KFC's success at selling chicken in China comes at a time when there is considerable global concern regarding bird flu which, by all accounts, originated in or near China. Vice Premier Hui Liangyu even said that the bird flu situation is a grave threat. Oddly, KFC succeeds.

In the past, some would say the Chinese have overreacted to health warnings concerning food. As an example, KFC stopped providing french fries as part of set meals in response to warnings that deep fried potatoes contain the potentially carcinogenic chemical acrylamide. Consequently, it seems somewhat incongruous that the threat of bird flu hasn't been translated into reduced sales of finger lickin' chicken.

Of course, the Chinese have always been described as inscrutable.