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- H & M’s online presence in China is disappearing as the country’s citizens boycott the brand.
- H&M products are missing from popular shopping sites, and store locations have been removed from map services.
- H & M’s months-old comment criticizing China over forced labor allegations resurfaced last week.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
H & M’s online presence has all but disappeared in China amid a widespread boycott of the Swedish retailer following the recirculation of comments about forced labor made by the company last year.
The H&M items were removed from Alibaba, the e-commerce giant founded by Jack Ma, and from JD.com, one of China’s largest online retailers, according to the Associated Press. China’s Baidu Maps platform, similar to Google Maps, as well as Alibaba’s mapping service, also removed the locations of H & M’s 500 Chinese stores. Those stores were also not showing up on the Chinese ride-sharing app Didi Chuxing, according to the report, and the H&M app wasn’t showing up on app stores either.
H&M did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The demise of H & M’s online presence represents the power China can wield over foreign retailers as Chinese businesses and consumers boycott the brand and others who are criticizing the government.
Last year, H&M issued a statement announcing its decision to stop sourcing cotton from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and said it would sever ties with a Chinese spinning company that had been accused of forcing the Muslim Uighur community to work. The comment was made after the BBC reported that hundreds of thousands of minority Uyghurs were being subjected to arduous forced labor.
Since then, reports have emerged accusing officials of continuing to prosecute Uighurs with confinement in concentration camps in Xinjiang, as well as forced sterilization. Beijing has denied that version and has said that the camps are “re-education centers” that offer “professional training”.
In the 2020 statement, H&M said it was “deeply concerned by reports from civil society organizations and the media that include allegations of forced labor.” It was recirculated on the social media platform Weibo after the United States, the EU, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for alleged human rights violations last week. China, in turn, imposed sanctions on British officials on Friday, banning them from entering the country.
H&M considers China its fourth-largest market, according to Reuters, and many in communist China have questioned the retailer’s comments.
“Spreading rumors of boycotting Xinjiang cotton while trying to make money in China? Wishful thinking!” The Communist Youth League of China published on Weibo, according to China’s Global Times news outlet.
H&M is not the only international brand to receive backlash for taking such a public stance against Xinjiang-sourced cotton. At least 11 American and European brands, including Burberry, Nike and Adidas, also face the consequences. Tencent said it was cleaning Burberry-designed suits worn by the characters in a popular online game, according to the AP.
