A law maker has proposed a motion to "immediately" remove Starbucks from the Forbidden City in Beijing, following an online controversy about the presence of the American coffee chain in the imperial palace.

"Starbucks must move out of the imperial palace immediately, and it can no longer be allowed to taint China's national culture, " said Jiang Hongbin, a deputy from Heilongjiang Province to the National People's Congress, on the sidelines of the top legislature's annual session.

Jiang, president of the Heilongjiang Chia Tai Co, Ltd, said he has already submitted a motion on closing the Starbucks outlet in the 587-year-old royal residence also known as the Palace Museum.

The coffeehouse remains where it was two months after a TV news anchor initiated an online campaign to drive it out of the ancient palace, though the shop has removed its outside logo, said Jiang, urging further substantial steps to remove the coffee shop.

"As long as it stays in the imperial palace, it poses a challenge to our traditional culture," said Jiang, without explaining what that sentence could possibly mean.

Rui Chenggang, a news anchorman for China Central Television, asked Starbucks to move out of the Forbidden City in a blog article in January. That posting caused a stir across the country and won the backing of more than half a million people.

In response to the online boycott, the museum management promised to try to reach an agreement with Starbucks to move by the end of June.

The Starbucks outlet opened in 2000 amid roaring "Nos" from the public.

The rent paid by Starbucks is used for maintenance of the palace, according to museum managers.

"But we should know not everything can be exchanged for money even in the market economy. The Forbidden City is one of the untradable products as its value cannot be measured with money," Jiang argued.

Covering more than 720,000 square meters in downtown Beijing, the Forbidden City was home to 24 emperors before the end of imperial rule in 1911.