Christian Dior was yesterday scrambling to avoid a Chinese consumer backlash over Tibet after the actress Sharon Stone, who is a model for the group, suggested the Sichuan earthquake might have been retribution for Beijing's policies in Tibet.

The luxury goods group apologised to its Chinese customers yesterday after the 50-year-old American actress said the earthquake in Sichuan province two weeks ago, which has killed at least 68,109 people, was the result of “karma” from China's policies in Tibet.

In a statement yesterday from its China headquarters, Dior said: “We absolutely disagree with her hasty comments and we are also deeply sorry about them . . . We will never support any opinion that hurts the feeling of the Chinese people.” Dior in Paris declined to comment.

Ms Stone made her comments during a visit to the Cannes film festival last week. She told a Hong Kong TV channel: “And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma – when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?”

She also said that she was “unhappy” with the way China was dealing with Tibet.

The comments gained wider attention after the footage was posted on YouTube and similar Chinese video-sharing sites prompting a wave of indig- nation among internet users in China.

The incident is potentially damaging for Christian Dior, which has made heavy use of images of the actress since she signed in 2005 to be the face of the group's Capture Totale skincare line.

A Beijing newspaper reported yesterday that photographs of the actress had been taken down from Dior branches in several of the city's malls. Christian Dior has 68 outlets in China, including 11 in the capital.

奢侈品集团克里斯汀·迪奥(Christian Dior)昨日匆忙采取补救措施，以免中国消费者因此对其进行抵制。此前，该公司形象代言人、女演员莎朗·斯通(Sharon Stone)暗示，四川地震可能是中国受到的报应。

这位50岁的美国女演员表示，两周前发生的四川地震是“因果报应”。随后，克里斯汀·迪奥在昨日向中国消费者道歉。此次地震已经导致68109人死亡。

克里斯汀·迪奥中国总部昨日发表的一份声明表示：“我们对此突发言论绝不认同，也深表遗憾……我们决不支持任何伤害中国人民情感的言论。”克里斯汀·迪奥巴黎总部拒绝置评。

莎朗·斯通是在上周参加戛纳电影节(Cannes Film Festival)时发表这番言论的。她对香港一家电视台表示：“接着这次地震以及所有这些事情发生了，我想，这会不会是因果报应？——当你不好时，坏事就会降临在你身上？”

这段视频被贴到YouTube以及中国的视频共享网站后，这番言论受到了更广泛的关注，激起了中国网民的愤怒。

这一事件很可能对克里斯汀·迪奥造成损害。在2005年签约莎朗·斯通作为该集团Capture Totale系列护肤产品的代言人后，克里斯汀·迪奥大量使用了她的形象。

北京一份报纸昨日报道称，北京许多商场内的克里斯汀·迪奥柜台已经撤下了莎朗·斯通的照片。克里斯汀·迪奥在中国拥有68个分店，其中11个在北京。

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