Sweden’s H&M, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, is facing a furious backlash from Chinese internet users who just learned that the company had stopped sourcing cotton from Xinjiang since last year over allegations of forced labor in the region.
The online furor erupted when the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), the youth division of China’s ruling party, lambasted H&M for issuing a letter saying it was deeply concerned by reports on “forced labor and discrimination of ethnoreligious minorities in Xinjiang.A vast number of Weibo users have called for a boycott of the Swedish fast-fashion chain, which operates over 400 stores in China.
Topics, hashtags, and posts related to the controversy have been dominating Weibo all of today. The main hashtag associated with the issue, Snow-white cotton in Xinjiang, has been viewed more than 200 million times, with thousands of comments calling for the retailer to shutter its Chinese stores and leave the country entirely.
Other international apparel brands, including Nike and Adidas, are also under attack due to their affiliation with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a major international cotton sustainability organization, which suspended licensing of farms in Xinjiang last year due to concerns about the use of forced labor in the region.












