When did Diet Coke first come to China and to Beijing specifically ?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 05 Mar 2005 11:25 PST

Coke itself began re-selling in China in 1979, and I found mention of
Diet Coke for sale in China in 1989, but no luck yet finding a
starting date for Diet Coke.


I haven't seen anything that specifies dates for individual cities. 
Would a date for China (even if it doesn't specify Beijing) be
satisfactory as an answer to your question?

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Clarification of Question by crouchingdragon-ga on 05 Mar 2005 12:19 PST

I am happy to know what year Diet Coke first came to China.

It would be even grander to know what year specifically diet coke
first came to Beijing   - as oppose to any other Chinese city.   Coke
refused to answer my inquiry about Beijing for some reason.

According to this source:
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:PAVjjWshSCsJ:www.larsperner.com/pastcourses/bsad114/PDF/Cultural%2520in-class%2520project.pdf+%22Coca-Cola+Light%22+china&hl=en


http://www.larsperner.com/pastcourses/bsad114/PDF/Cultural%20in-class%20project.pdf


"Coca Cola--China. With the growing popularity of fattier Western
foods, overweight and obesity are becoming increasing problems in
China. Coca Cola has been popular in China for some time, but only
since late 2001 has Diet Coke (known there as Coca Cola Light) been
available in China. So far, the main consumers of Coca Cola light
appear to be foreign tourists. Tourists have found that they might
have to refer to ?sugar free Coke? rather than ?Coca Cola Light ?in
order to make shopkeepers understand what they were asking for."