H&M Being Barred From Major E-Commerce On China App Over the Xinjiang Cotton Boycott
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H&M will land themselves some big impact after all major e-commerce and service app in China has been barred, the Cummunist Party organization has barred H&M after they expressed “deep concern” controversy of forced labour in Xinjiang’s cotton industry.
On Thursday morning, any search of H&M will return with zero result on all e-commerce platforms which are Alibaba’s Taobao, JD.com and Pinduoduo, Meituan’s shop-listing app Dianping, map apps from Tencent and Baidu, among other major online platforms in China. H&M only relies on network of third party to sell in China and Mainland China is one of the four largest market by sales for H&M in 2020, which the fashion giant operated 445 stores across 146 cities in the country.
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What is clear that the diplomatic tension between China and U.S countries have been rising and along with other issue, several Chinese state-affiliated news outlets have called for a nationwide boycott of H&M in articles that mention removing the retailer product from the country internet platform.
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The Youth League’s comment just came in days after Britain, Canada and the European Union and the U.S announced sanctions on Chinese officials with an escalating row over the human rights issues in Xinjiang with Beijing immediately hit back with its own broad list of sanctioning on EU entities and individuals. H&M appears to have pulled its controversial statement.
While other foreign brands have joined H&M on the hot sea as internet user come to target Better Cotton Initiatve, a group that promotes sustainable cotton product such like Nike, Adidas, IKEA and many other multinational brands as members.