HONG KONG: The world’s largest clothing brand, Hennes & Mauritz AB, H&M, is being stormed in China, one of its largest markets, for its forced labor stance in the country’s remote cotton-producing region, Xinjiang.
Chinese state media and social media users on Wednesday excoriated the fast-paced Swedish fashion giant in an outburst of anger, accusing the company of spreading rumors and tarnishing China by a statement it made last year about forced labor in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.
H&M name searches on China’s largest e-commerce platforms were blocked on Wednesday, while Internet users went to Twitter in the same way as Weibo, to call for a boycott of the company , which operates more than 400 stores in China. Two of the fashion company’s Chinese brand ambassadors also announced that they were severing ties with H&M over what was called their union with China.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Pinduoduo Inc. and JD.com Inc., which manages e-commerce sites that block H&M, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Spread rumors of boycotting Xinjiang cotton while trying to make money in China? A wishful thinking! “wrote the Chinese Communist Youth League in a post on Weibo that was forwarded nearly 30,000 times and attracted nearly 10,000 comments.