The West loves Chinese Uighurs but has to boycott its cotton

finance-twitter:

Western Brands Under Attack! – Here’s Why Chinese Consumers Suddenly Boycott H&M And Nike Over Xinjiang Cotton

If you boycott Xinjiang cotton, we’ll boycott you – said an internet user. That angry Chinese consumer is just one of 1.4 billion consumers in China who has started a nationwide boycott of Swedish fashion giant H&M. However, the attack against the world’s second-largest clothing retailer was first started when the Chinese Communist Party’s Youth League posted a message on social media.

“Spreading rumours to boycott Xinjiang cotton while also wanting to make money in China? Wishful thinking!” – read the post, and all hell breaks loose. That post on Weibo, the Chinese micro-blogging website equivalent to Twitter, immediately gained half a million “likes” and shared 50,000 times while attracted 16,000 comments on Wednesday morning alone.

The hashtag – “I support Xinjiang cotton” – has gone so viral that it was read more than 1 billion times. In fact, one of the most-liked Weibo comments said – “H&M clothes are rags. They don’t deserve our Xinjiang cotton!” State broadcaster CCTV accused foreign brands of “earning big profits in China but attacking the country with lies at the same time.”



If you think this is just a naughty rhetoric from the communist party, think again. On the same Wednesday (March 24), H&M’s products disappeared from Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Taobao and JD.com. Two popular actors, in a show of patriotism, have cut ties with the Swedish multinational clothing-retail company known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children.

Actor Huang Xuan said on his official Weibo page he had terminated his contract as a representative for H&M. The 36-year-old Chinese actor said he opposed “slander and creating rumours”. Victoria Song Qian, a Chinese singer, dancer, actress, model and television presenter, said she no longer had a relationship with H&M and “the country’s interests are above all”.

Apparently, H&M said last year that it would not source cotton from Xinjiang and was ending its relationship with a Chinese yarn producer over “forced labour” accusations involving Uighur Muslims. H&M issued the statement after think tank – the Australian Strategic Policy Institute – released a report which listed H&M as potentially benefitting from forced labour.



Caught completely by surprise, H&M China promptly released a statement on Wednesday night, saying it “does not represent any political position” and remains committed to long-term investment in China. But the damage is already done. It is paying the price for boycotting Xinjiang cotton based on a report from a defence and strategic policy think tank funded by the Australian Department of Defence.

China is H&M’s fourth-biggest market with sales of 2.9 billion Swedish crowns (US$339 million) in the 12 months through Nov 2020. Global Times reported that only a few customers had gone inside the biggest H&M store in Sanlintun, one of Beijing’s major commercial areas. Another H&M store in a business district in Shanghai has increased security as boycott gains steam.

A Beijing resident surnamed Zhao said – “Boycotting H&M will not have any impact on people like me, because there are many alternative choices. Many domestic brands have good designs, and I shop on Taobao to buy clothes most of the time, where the styles and quality are much better and prices are much lower than these brands.”



Clearly, the old statement from H&M has come back to haunt the Swedish company after the European Union, together with the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, imposed sanctions against 4 Chinese officials on Monday. In a swift retaliation, China imposed sanctions against 10 European politicians and four bodies on the same day, shocking the EU.

The EU has accused the Chinese officials of “arbitrary detentions and degrading treatment inflicted upon Uighurs and people from other Muslim ethnic minorities”. Activists and U.N. rights experts claimed at least 1 million Muslims have been detained in camps in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has been accused of using torture, forced labour and sterilizations.

As Western countries seek to hold Beijing accountable for mass detentions of Muslim Uighurs, the U.S. has gone one step further – accusing Beijing of committing genocide. However, China says its camps provide vocational training and are necessary to fight extremism. The Muslim Uighur separatists had previously committed terrorism, including the hijack of Tianjin Airlines Flight 7554.




Hitting back with a similar sanctions, only on a broader scope, the China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has told the European Union to stop lecturing others on human rights and interfering in their internal affairs. Besides mocking the EU of being hypocritical and practising double standards, it has also warned of further actions. And those actions turned out as boycotts on Western brands.

Of course, H&M is not the only company being targeted in what seems to be a coordinated assault on the Western countries. Within hours, Nike, an American multinational corporation, suffers the same backlash from Chinese consumers over a statement it made previously that it was concerned about reports of forced labour in Xinjiang, and said it would not source textiles from the region.

Like H&M, which operates more than 500 stores in China, Nike had also reacted to the same report produced by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that said Nike’s factory employed around 800 Uighur workers at the end of 2019 and produced more than 7 million pairs of shoes for Nike each year. Later, Nike said its Qingdao factory had stopped hiring new workers from Xinjiang in 2019.



While Xinjiang is the epicentre of minority Uighur Muslims whom the Western governments repeatedly alleged of being abused by the Chinese government, the province also produces vast amounts of raw materials like cotton, sugar, tomatoes, coal and polysilicon, as well as supplies workers for China’s apparel and footwear factories like U.S. sportswear giant Nike.

The boycott over the Nike statement was among the highest trending topics on Weibo, so much so that Wang Yibo terminated his contract as a representative for Nike. The 23-year-old Wang is a popular Chinese actor, dancer, singer, rapper, TV host, and professional motorcycle racer. He wrote to his 38 million followers on Weibo – “I firmly oppose any act to smear China,”

Similarly, 30-year-old actress Tan Songyun, who has 23 million followers on Weibo, also announced the termination of her contract with Nike. The Communist Youth League of China has also shortlisted Adidas, New Balance, IKEA, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Burberry as other Western brands that are members of the “Better Cotton Initiative”, which suspended the cotton sourced from Xinjiang in early 2020.



Some internet users said they would stop buying American brand Nike and instead support local brands such as Li Ning and Anta, while others told Adidas to leave China. Taking advantage of the situation, Anta Sports, the Chinese sneaker giant that owns the Fila brand, said it would continue to use cotton from Xinjiang. Even Japanese retailer Muji began to advertise products made with “Xinjiang cotton”.

The move by the government of President Xi Jinping was not only designed to punish Western businesses in China, but also to send a message – stop interfering in China’s internal affairs. The Commerce Ministry said – “Chinese consumers have acted in response to the so-called business decisions made by some companies based on false information”.

If there’s one war Beijing is cocksure of winning, it’s definitely the consumer boycotts fought on its own turf. This is not the first time China drove such campaign to punish foreign companies. Consumer boycotts are among its favourite tools of retaliation, simply because it works by leveraging on the country’s massive spending power to inflict economic damage on foreign brands.



South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group was forced to exit from China, following a political dispute between the two nations over Seoul’s installation of a US anti-missile system – Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) – in 2017. Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana, the NBA, the English Premier League, Apple and even model Gigi Hadid have suffered boycott in China.

Luca Solca, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said – “Companies caught in the crossfire can be heavily penalized, as they end up in China on the wrong side of consumer preferences, social media commentary, and e-commerce platforms. European mass fashion retailers are torn between this and having to stand on the right side of western consumers’ concerns.”