Chinese netizens angry at H&M over Xinjiang cotton ban, calls for boycott

Chinese netizens are furious and calling for boycott on Swedish fashion retailer H&M, after learning that the company banned sourcing cotton from Xinjiang since last year over allegations of forced labor in the region.

It all started when the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), the youth division of China's ruling party, took to Weibo to criticize H&M for issuing a letter saying it was "deeply concerned" by reports on "forced labor and discriminatoin against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

The CYLC wrote in a post (in Chinese): 

“Spreading rumors to boycott Xinjiang cotton, while also wanting to make money in China? Wishful thinking!” 

One of the People’s Liberation Army’s Weibo accounts called H&M’s statement “ignorant and arrogant.”  

In addition to ordinary netizens who resist these brand, a host of Chinese celebrities were quick to cut business ties with H&M today and issued statements saying they no longer have any ties with it.

Sòng Qiàn 宋茜, H&M China’s brand ambassador, wrote on Weibo (in Chinese) that she no longer wanted to be associated with the brand, stating that “national interests are above all else.”　　

After the public outcry, multiple platforms are suspected of delisting H&M products. H&M’s official store on Alibaba’s Tmall, an e-commerce platform, was not accessible on Wednesday. 

The brand’s products have been removed from all major Chinese ecommerce platforms, including Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo. 

China denies all allegations regarding Xinjiang Uyghurs as “lies.” 

According to Xu Guixiang, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xinjiang cotton production has long been highly mechanized. Even in the busy picking season, there is no need for a large number of "cotton pickers." There is no need to mobilize forcibly picking cotton. Although it is very hard to pick cotton, the income of the growers is high. Some ethnic minority people in southern Xinjiang also voluntarily join the work of picking cotton.

Beijing also says that it is lifting the region out of poverty, building infrastructure to improve the economy and ensuring children receive educations. The government says these efforts help it counter extremism in the region.

In a video (in Chinese) that has garnered more than 6 million views on Weibo after it was uploaded yesterday by China Global Television Network (CGTN), a cotton farmer in Xinjiang denies allegations of forced labor, stating that the process of cotton production has basically been mechanized, and that there was no need for a large number of cotton pickers. Most comments under the video accuse Western media and human rights activists of spreading lies and disinformation.

Behind the scenes boycotting Xinjiang cotton

H&M is not the only clothing brand involved. There are many big Western brands that have stopped using Xinjiang cotton. Behind them, there is a common "mastermind"-the "Better Cotton Initiative" (BCI).

Other international apparel brands, including Nike and Adidas, are also under attack due to their affiliation with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).

Facing growing public pressure, Anta Sports, a Chinese sports apparel manufacturer, has released a statement (in Chinese) on Weibo saying that it would quit BCI and that it had always used Chinese cotton.

BCI is a non-profit organization NGO whose original intention is to monitor the environmental and labor impacts of cotton production.

The "funders" behind BCI are the "foreign aid agencies" of Western governments such as the United States and Germany.

Ten years ago, since receiving financial support from Western government agencies, BCI's international influence has greatly increased. Many major Western brands cooperate with them and require Chinese export companies to provide BCI certification.

But the actual certification process is nothing more than paying a few hundred dollars certification fee to BCI.

Last year, after the so-called "Xinjiang problem" began to spread in the West, BCI banned the certification of Xinjiang cotton. This time H&M made a strong move, but it was just a follow-up of the cooperative brand.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly clarified the facts and truths regarding lies such as "forced labor" and "religious discrimination."

As early as March 18 last year, in response to a series of so-called Xinjiang-related "research reports" concocted by German anti-China scholar Zheng Guoen and the spread of rumors, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region held the fifth press conference on Xinjiang-related issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Leaders of Xinjiang local government, the cadres, and the masses face to face with the Chinese and foreign media, resolutely fought back against false slanders and used facts to restore the truth.

"I heard some people outside of China say that we are forcing farmers to grow and pick cotton in Xinjiang. This is nonsense! We grow our own land, collect our own cotton, and earn our own money. How do we call forced labor?" "Hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority workers in Xinjiang are forced to pick cotton by hand" fallacy, 

the cotton farmer Mijit Timit from Kuqa City, Aksu Prefecture said.

The Mijit Timit family has 300 acres of land and mainly grows cotton. 

"In the past few years, when the cotton picking season came when the family had insufficient manpower, we would spend money to ask cotton pickers from Xinjiang and the mainland to help. They can earn more than 10,000 yuan in two months, and everyone is rushing to come.  Is this called forced labor?" He asked rhetorically.

Regarding rumors such as "70% of cotton in Xinjiang still depends on manual harvesting," Mijit Timit said, 

"Now we use machines to pick cotton. Machine-picked cotton is cheaper and more efficient. My cotton was picked in less than a day. You don’t need so many people to pick it by hand."

"Those who spread rumors are not trying to protect our rights at all, but to let farmers’ cotton rot in the ground. They are trying to smash the rice bowls of our farmers, so that we have no work and no food to eat, and return to the previous poverty. Day, we are determined not to agree!" he said.