Man says Starbucks accused him of spying for China

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH/CNN) – A Starbucks executive apologized to a San Francisco man after an employee apparently accused him of being a spy for China.

Daniel Lui posted about the incident on Yelp. According to Lui, he was visiting a Starbucks location in Seattle, Washington when an executive came up to him and accused him of spying in order to open a coffee chain in China.

“I was really shocked and taken aback,” Lui said in a later interview. “We didn’t know what to think. We were dumbfounded.”

Lui works for a charity and is not in the coffee business. After posting about the incident on Yelp, the Starbucks executive called to apologize and the company put $50 on Lui’s Starbucks card.

The incident happened before Starbucks launched its controversial Race Together initiative aimed at improving race relations in the U.S.