The United States began some sanctions on Xinjiang cotton and textiles last year, citing risk of forced labor linked to a state-sponsored reeducation campaign for ethnic Uyghurs. This was expanded to a blanket import ban in January. Beijing says no forced labor has taken place in Xinjiang and calls the sanctions an effort to undermine China’s economy.
On Monday, the United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada announced coordinated sanctions on several Chinese officials responsible for policy in Xinjiang.
H&M’s statement that it is cutting Xinjiang from its supply chain is actually months old. According to a cached version of the deleted webpage, H&M had said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of forced labor and discrimination in Xinjiang. It said it was taking steps to “reduce exposure” in Xinjiang “until conditions for credible due diligence are in place.”
On Wednesday night, Chinese state broadcaster CGTN dredged up the statement and called for consumers to boycott H&M, saying the brand would pay a heavy cost. The call to boycott was repeated in other major state-media outlets, an unusual level of coordination in targeting a brand.
State-run tabloid Global Times called H&M’s statement on Xinjiang “suicidal.”
People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s paper of record, created a hashtag, #ISupportXJCotton, that had generated 1.5 million posts and been viewed 700 million times by Thursday morning on the social media platform Weibo.
H&M China posted a new statement in Chinese on its Weibo social media account Wednesday night saying that it respected Chinese consumers and that its supplier policies “did not represent any political stance.” H&M did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Thursday morning, H&M’s store on the Taobao online shopping platform had been blocked. Chinese netizens reported that H&M’s app no longer appeared in Chinese Android app stores, and H&M stores did not show up on Baidu or Gaode online maps.
Actor Huang Xuan terminated an H&M endorsement contract to protest its “human rights smear campaign,” according to Global Times.
Nike has also come under attack this week for shifting its supply chain away from Xinjiang. On Thursday morning, Yuehua Entertainment, the company representing actor Wang Yibo, announced he had ended an endorsement contract with Nike.
“The country’s dignity cannot be violated,” the statement from Yuehua Entertainment said. “We resolutely safeguard the interests of the motherland.”
Whipping up domestic consumers to buy products made with Xinjiang cotton may help China’s textile industry offset a drop-off in orders from Western countries. One of H&M’s former suppliers, Huafu Fashion, said in January that it lost at least $54.3 million last year because of U.S. sanctions.
The campaign also increases the uncertainty and business risk faced by multinational companies operating in China.
Lyric Li in Seoul and Alicia Chen in Taipei contributed to this report.