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The Shanghai City Council says they have agreed with H&M that the garment giant will change a “troublesome map” of China on its website, writes the Reuters news agency. The city council has not shared more details about the case.
H&M “corrected the error as soon as possible” after being called into a meeting, according to ABC News.
This occurs in the middle of a great conflict between the Chinese authorities and the clothing chain, in which several other chains and countries are also involved.
Last week, both the United States and the EU imposed sanctions on China for the authorities’ treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region.
Human rights groups have accused the authorities of keeping Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups in detention camps in Xinjiang and using them for forced labor, writes CNN.
Chinese authorities on Monday asked companies to better investigate the matter. They have vigorously rejected the forced labor allegations and asked, among other things, the United States to review its own history.
“When the sanctions whip swings over Xinjiang, it will also hit its own head,” a spokesman for the Xinjiang regional government, Xu Guixiang, told a news conference in Beijing on Monday.
Big boycott
State-controlled media have called for a boycott of several large companies, including H&M, Nike and Adidas. Last year, H&M stated that it would no longer buy cotton from the Xinjiang region due to allegations of forced labor and human rights violations in the area. The region accounts for about a fifth of world cotton production.
In various Chinese online stores, it is no longer possible to find items from various major clothing brands. Some of H & M’s physical stores have been removed from map services, writes Bloomberg.
More than 30 Chinese A-list celebrities have also ended their collaborations with various clothing brands targeted by the boycott, CNN reports. Several also used the topic tag “I support Xinjiang cotton” on Weibo, one of China’s social networks.
The scope of the celebrity celebration became so great that March 25 is called “contract termination day” in China’s social media by entertainment circles in China, writes CNN.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian dismissed allegations that Beijing had led the boycott campaign against H&M and the other brands.
“These foreign companies refuse to use Xinjiang cotton solely on the basis of lies,” Zhao told a news conference, according to The New York Times.
“Of course this will unleash the reluctance and anger of the Chinese people,” he said.
Sanctions
After Britain, the United States and Canada imposed sanctions on officials and politicians in China’s Xinjiang province for human rights abuses, China responded with its own sanctions.
Members of a Canadian Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights were denied access to China, Hong Kong and Macao.
So did Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and Canadian MP Michael Chong.
The United States warned China that retaliatory sanctions against the United States were unfounded and only led to further criticism of the “ongoing genocide” in Xinjiang.
“Beijing’s attempts to intimidate and silence voices defending human rights and fundamental freedoms only contribute to a more international investigation into the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” said the US Secretary of State. , Antony Blinken, in a statement.
