A bout of rage from China against Western brands

IslamNews – H&M faces a boycott. Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas, Nike, Converse and Calvin Klein have lost their brand ambassadors. Burberry has had to give up an online video game partnership.

Major Western clothing brands are facing anger from Chinese consumers. Egged on by the Communist Party, Chinese online activists want to punish the companies that have joined a call to avoid using cotton produced in Xinjiang, where the authorities are repressing minorities.

Previous state pressure campaigns against Apple, Starbucks and Volkswagen ultimately failed to dent their bottom lines. But the sudden rage laid bare the vulnerability of foreign companies as tensions worsen between the West and China.

Context: There is growing evidence that cotton from Xinjiang is linked to coercive labor programs and mass internment of as many as one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other largely Muslim minorities, according to U.S. officials and rights groups. Western governments have imposed sanctions on Beijing for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. China denies the accusations.

Source: The New York Times