HONG KONG – The world’s largest clothing brand, Hennes & Mauritz AB’s H&M, is under attack in China, one of its biggest markets, because of its position on forced labor in the country’s remote cotton-producing region, Xinjiang.
Chinese state media and social media users criticized the Swedish fast-fashion giant in a rage on Wednesday, accusing the company of spreading rumors and defaming China over a statement made last year about forced labor in Xinjiang region, northwest China.
Searches for H&M’s name on China’s largest e-commerce platforms were blocked on Wednesday, while Internet users accessed Weibo’s Chinese website 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 relations with H&M because of what was called defamation of China.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Pinduoduo Inc. and JD.com Inc., which manage the e-commerce sites that block H&M, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Spreading rumors to boycott Xinjiang cotton while trying to make money in China? Positive thinking! ”Wrote the Communist Youth League of China in a post on Weibo that has been forwarded almost 30,000 times and has attracted nearly 10,000 comments.