The boycott of H&M in mainland China has only just begun, and is now continuing to ferment and intensify, having turned from a simple boycott of H&M into a boycott of Nike, Adidas, Uniqlo and a series of other internationally renowned brands.
The first two days began to be criticized by the official mouthpiece People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency and other media and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League by name, fanning the flames, Huang Xuan and Chen Xi canceled the endorsement of H&M, Eason Chen also dissolved the partnership with Adi, and many other well-known Film and Television stars and these brands dissolved the partnership.
In the private sector, the voice of boycotting these brands also spread from the Internet to off the Internet and began to hit the physical stores of these companies. For example, some cities started to take down the billboards of H&M and Zara, and some pinkies and fifty cents went to the physical stores of H&M and Nike to protest and shout slogans. There was a netizen from a Beijing radio station who broadcast live, using scissors to cut away Nike’s logo and cut what he paid for to express his patriotic passion. And many pinkies did shoot videos, burning Nike shoes and putting on green liberation shoes. Of course these two days online such behavior is not a few, you can see that the Chinese have finally found a so-called patriotic passion vent.
Of course, there are still a very few sensible voices online, saying that the 50-cent pinky only supports Xinjiang cotton, but not Xinjiang people, Xinjiang people staying in hotels, going abroad, employment, travel and not being casually discouraged, all of which should be supported. Of course, just short of saying to focus on the Life and death of Xinjiang people in the concentration camps. Someone else posted the crisp Mao-era rags and liberation shoes and said that’s all we eat, which is obvious sarcasm. But as far as the overall main theme is concerned, the country is still dominated by the War Wolf voice of boycotting foreign goods.
The whole country is digging deeper and deeper into the foreign enterprises that boycotted Xinjiang cotton, ready to pull a list for sanctions to show their strength, and the result is more and more: Uniqlo, Adi, P&G, Nike, MUJI, Hitachi, Toshiba, Sony, Crocodile, ZARA, Decaroon, Ikea …… all the clothing as well as the best-selling brand-name companies are basically exhausted in one go.
Even so, the statements of these companies can be said to be throwing their weight around, with no sign of a softening apology. h&m, nike so, mujirushi also so. Reuters recently reported that Japan’s MUJI parent company said it was “very concerned” about reports of forced labor in Xinjiang, China. MUJI issued a statement saying that the company had checked the Xinjiang factories that supply its products and said it found obvious problems. The Goodwill program said it is trying to ensure compliance with EU and U.S. laws and regulations regarding human rights in Xinjiang, and that it still has a strong bone to pick.
The boycott, which the Communist Party’s Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily believe is being organized by foreign textile associations, is aimed at the U.S. and foreign organizations, and is arguably paving the way and fanning the flames for the vocal Boxer Rebellion. The real purpose is to drive these multinational giants, such as H&M, Nike, Adi and Uniqlo, out of China completely as a counter-attack to the European and American sanctions against China.
This is the main reason why the boycott of Xinjiang cotton was last year, but Xinhua News Agency and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League want to turn up at this Time to fan the flames and call for a boycott.
But can the Chinese Communist Party really hurt Europe and the United States with this kind of operation? I don’t think so.
At first glance it looks like H&M, Nike, Adi and Uniqlo and MUJI have been hit, for example, typically Nike’s stock price has dropped a lot in a short period of time. On the contrary, stock prices of Li Ning and Anta rose sharply, giving the impression that Chinese clothing companies as well as the textile industry would benefit from this boycott campaign. So, is this really the case? Let’s analyze the current situation of the textile industry, China’s number one export industry and the import and export situation to see who will be hurt by this campaign?
The textile industry and garments are China’s major exporters, bringing in a large amount of foreign exchange for China every year. To say that over the past four decades, China’s exports of foreign exchange is the biggest contributor, non-textile and garment industry, a labor-intensive industry.
China’s annual cotton production of about 6.5 million tons, about 80% of the production in Xinjiang, you can see the cotton production in Xinjiang in China’s textile industry. This is the main reason why the Western garment associations boycott cotton from Xinjiang, making the Chinese government highly nervous. In addition to the annual production of 6.5 million tons, China’s annual imports of about 2 million tons, a total of about 8.5 million tons.
China’s finished textiles, apparel dependence on foreign markets is at least 46%, nearly 50%, and the highest industrial textiles have reached 70%. It can be said that without foreign markets, these production capacity will be excess, these workers will be unemployed, at least in relation to the livelihood of millions of millions of families. The three major finished textile industries together, the total export scale is close to $190 billion, and the ratio of exports to total production is about 50%.
This means that China’s woven yarn, spinning out of the cloth, the domestic market can only digest half, and half must be sold abroad. And, more crucially, China’s clothing and textile exports, which are basically the exports of foreign-funded enterprises, accounting for about 90% of the exports year-round. These foreign enterprises are mainly these enterprises that are now boycotted, such as Nike, Adi, Uniqlo, H&M and other such giants, who sell their clothing to the world by labeling China’s domestic production. On the contrary, the companies that seem to be benefiting from the boycott because of these companies, such as Li Ning, Anta and other Chinese national brands, actually have no export capacity at all. Although China’s domestic clothing production enterprises have great capacity, but the export, must be labeled with foreign brands, counted as exports of foreign enterprises.
Give up the cotton in Xinjiang not to use, but to import a lot of cotton, which is a great loss, and there is not so much international cotton for you to buy is also a big unknown. If you do not increase imports of cotton and cotton yarn, in the case of cotton in Xinjiang was boycotted, China’s textile and apparel, the leading industry exports of $ 150 billion a year, may be hit hard.
As mentioned earlier, the textile industry is labor-intensive and can accommodate a large number of employed people. 2020, the total employment absorbed by the upstream and downstream industrial chain of China’s textile and garment industry is said to be as high as 170 million people, a huge number beyond imagination. According to half of the production capacity exported to foreign countries to calculate, China has 85 million people is dependent on clothing and textile exports to live. According to the current scale of China’s boycott, foreign investors who export under Chinese labels will all be driven out, and China will have to close its doors to produce Zhongshan clothing and liberation shoes. The lost capital is not counted, how to solve the employment problem of 85 million people alone, is a big problem.
We know that over the years there have been many European and American electronic information technology giants to withdraw from China, such as Samsung, Apple, Foxconn, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, Sony, Panasonic, Seagate, Siemens and so on, China has lost a lot of jobs. If the textile industry this time to another wave of layoffs, it can be said that the unemployment rate is not 15%-20% of the problem, doubled may be more than.
Boycotting H&M, burning Nike shoes, cutting Nike shoes, showing patriotic passion is cool, I wonder if any of these people and their families are engaged in the textile industry. Now listen to the Chinese Communist Party official media instigation, act as anti-American anti-Western vanguard, when the clothing and textile industry because of the drive away from foreign companies, can not export led to layoffs, you then do?
Now this government will care about your life or death? ……
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