Made in China burger and fries has a side of nationalism

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Singapore: We will never know if Xi Jinping has, on quiet occasion, shared in Donald Trump’s delight for the humble hamburger.

No world leader is as smitten with the Big Mac as Trump, and it would be wildly off-brand for the Chinese president to publicly indulge in something so quintessentially all-American.

Fast food workers at Chinese burger chain Tastien prepare orders at a store in Beijing.Credit: Sanghee Liu

But if Xi was looking for an acceptable compromise he’d probably make a beeline for China’s Tastien fast food chain, which proclaims itself the “creator of the Chinese burger”.

To dine in at one of its 7000 outlets, as I did twice during a trip to Beijing this month, is to experience American fast food culture wrapped in Chinese patriotism, quite literally, and set to a jingle mash-up of Chinese opera and rap played in the restaurant on a loop.

Tastien proudly spruiks its “Made in China” origins. The motto is emblazoned on the packaging and on advertising throughout the restaurant, accompanied by the company’s red lion mascot.

The chain was launched in 2012 but began flipping burgers in 2017. Since then, it has been billed as a cut-price rival to McDonald’s. But really, it is channelling KFC and even offers a “Zinger Chinese burger” meal with thick-cut fries and a Pepsi for 24 yuan ($5.26), though there are also two-for-one deals on offer.

A Tastien Made in China ‘zinger’ chicken burger.Credit: Lisa Visentin

Chinese state media has been eagerly championing Tastien’s inroads into the country’s fast-food scene, with the company doubling the number of stores in recent years, surpassing McDonald’s (which has about 6000 stores) but still trailing KFC (with more than 10,000).

Tastien’s trademark is its hand-rolled burger buns – a take on the meat-stuffed bread pockets called rougamo and sold by street food vendors – and its fusion of Western and Chinese tastes. The beef patty burger comes topped with cumin mushrooms, while the Peking duck burger is a spin on the famous pancake.

At 4.30pm on Saturday, the small store in Beijing’s Chaoyang district is doing a reasonable trade, with a steady stream of food delivery drivers scurrying in to collect takeaway orders. Of half a dozen or so diners eating in, none say they are drawn in by the patriotic overtures.

A man carries his McDonald’s takeaway in Beijing, China.Credit: AP

Mrs Xu, 48, a regular patron, is here for the bread.

“Once I tried Chinese hamburger, I’ve never been to McDonald’s and KFC again. Their bread is too soft and puffy,” she says.

Nonetheless, in its pivot to catering to Chinese tastebuds with patriotic appeals, Tastien may as well have been taking notes from Xi himself.

In the decade since becoming leader, Xi has waged a campaign to assert Chinese nationalism and self-reliance at the core of the country’s identity and economic might, turbocharging trends in consumerism, marketing and manufacturing in line with these goals.

This agenda has underpinned Xi’s own Made in China 2025 industrial strategy – an ambitious policy launched in 2015 to transform the nation into a global high-tech manufacturing powerhouse and to end its reliance on Western supply chains. In essence, where the West goes, so too must China, and it must beat it.

An employee prepares hamburgers at KFC China’s 10,000th store in Hangzhou, on the opening day in December 2023.Credit: Getty

As the strategy clocks the 10-year mark, China is not only closing the technology gap with the US in areas such as artificial intelligence, drones and robotics. In some sectors, such as electric vehicles, it is the pacesetter and in solar panels, it controls the industry. But it trails the US and its allies in the high-tech chips race.

Its blistering advancements have come off the back of billions in state subsidies for Chinese companies and allegations of intellectual property theft from Western rivals, setting the stage for a wave of protectionist tariffs from Europe and the US and a broader trade war with the Trump administration. In fact, Chinese officials stopped talking about “Made in China 2025” publicly in 2018 as alarm bells began ringing in Washington.

Still, the fruits are everywhere to be seen and ripening faster with every passing month.

This year, we’ve seen the shock emergence of chatbot startup DeepSeek, which has fuelled a billion-dollar AI funding race in China’s tech sector, BYD’s latest-model EVs that can be recharged in just five minutes and glimpses of the next-gen J-36 stealth fighter jet. All of these were achieved in the face of Washington’s efforts to bury Beijing in sanctions and export blacklists aimed at stymying its technological sprint.

Back to the burger, there’s still an expansive culinary gap to be bridged, in my humble opinion, before the Americans are knocked off their patty podium. At least one diner agrees with me, holding up his cold fries in disgust.

“They are not crispy,” he says, complaining that his chicken burger is an unsatisfying dupe to his usual KFC go-to.

As for my Peking duck burger, well, you get what you pay for. If you’re forking out on a trip to Beijing, and need a burger, get the real thing.

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