now the retail giant h m is facing a
backlash
and a potential boycott in china because
it won't source its cotton from xinjiang
province in a statement
last year h m said that it was deeply
concerned by reports of forced labor and
discrimination
against xinjiang's muslim minorities
then on wednesday the chinese communist
youth league
posted this message on social media
saying spreading rumors to boycott
xinjiang cotton
while wanting to make money in china
wishful thinking
shortly after h m disappeared from two
of china's major shopping platforms
chinese state tv released photos mocking
the h m logo calling it ridiculous
and even celebrities have claimed their
breaking ties with the retailer
our correspondent robin brandt is in
shanghai and explains why this is
happening now
h m is big here here in shanghai it's
big across china this is
one of its multitude of locations in
this country but what's striking about
what we see in the last 24 hours is
how quickly and how all of a sudden
apparently
this campaign led by celebrity endorsers
and led by some
arms of the ruling communist party has
come out of nowhere
and also what's so striking is how
it's gathered pace in a matter of hours
so this is all about h m's proclamation
going back last year which you just
referred to
saying it wanted to purge its supply
chain of cotton
that was used and harvested in xinjiang
that's the western province in china
where china is accused of
abuses against the muslim minority there
genocide is actually how now president
biden's administration
uh has classified the abuses going on um
so what's most intriguing is that all of
a sudden
just a few days after coordinated
sanctions were imposed by the uk the us
and the european union we have arms of
the communist party the celebrity
endorsers happy to take h
m's money up until now all of a sudden
coming out of nowhere
bailing on the company and encouraging
others to do the same
in the other end of the scale you have
retailers like muji the japanese
retailer we just bought this
shirt there this morning on the label
this actually refers to xinjiang cotton
so they're at the other end of the scale
in terms of what's going on but look
it's very serious this kind of
effort to use its economic clout this
kind of retail nationalism is a very
familiar
tactic employed by china employed by the
party employed by
its government and it's serious just ask
the south koreans
their uh chain store lotte suffered very
seriously
uh in years gone by over a diplomatic
spat just asked the philippines as well
the government there
its fruit exports suffered seriously
here that was all about
a diplomatic spat between its
governments uh robin branch reporting
there now china's foreign ministry has
accused foreign companies of
malicious attacks on china based on
rumours and lies
and harmed china's interests about the
situation in xinjiang
he's the foreign ministry spokesperson
the
first xinjiang cotton ranks among the
best in the world
the loss is on the companies that choose
not to use it
second the allegations of forced labor
are malicious lies fabricated by
anti-china forces to smear china and
disrupt
safety and security