The “Xinjiang cotton” incident continues to heat up, refusing to use Xinjiang cotton by the Chinese boycott of the Swedish fashion brand H&M said Wednesday that about 20 stores in China have been closed. The BBC’s China correspondent Sha Lei has been transferred to Taiwan after being pressured and threatened by the authorities.
The BBC announced on Twitter on 31 March that its Beijing correspondent Sha Lei had left China for Taiwan and would continue to follow China news across the sea. Sha Lei has been in China for nine years and has covered Xinjiang Uighur human rights issues and won several awards, in addition to reporting on China’s New Crown (a Chinese Communist virus) Epidemic. The BBC confirmed Wednesday that Sha Lei and his Family were followed by plainclothes police on their way to the Beijing airport. Sha Lei also previously disclosed that he and his team faced surveillance, threats, obstruction and intimidation wherever they filmed or interviewed in China.
In a statement, the BBC emphasized that “Sha Lei brought to light the truth that the Chinese Communist authorities do not want the world to know.”
In a statement, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China also expressed “concern and sadness. The statement noted that Sha Lei and his colleagues have been subjected to false information and personal attacks by the Chinese government and official media in the past few months, and revealed that Sha Lei’s visa status was suspected to have been shortened in the past two years.
The statement emphasized that the Chinese government has continued to claim that foreign journalists in China are driven by anti-China political forces to report against the official Communist Party line, and that Beijing authorities are willing to threaten journalists with legal action. The statement said, “Foreign journalists are caught up in a diplomatic dispute beyond their control.”
Su Qiaoning, who teaches in the journalism department at Oakland University, noted that journalism has become a new political tool of defense and offense for China, and that under Beijing’s clampdown on press freedom, journalists in China are in a difficult position to “investigate deeply” and “protect themselves. Under Beijing’s clampdown on press freedom, journalists in China are faced with the dilemma of “in-depth investigation” and “self-protection” and can only choose self-censorship to circumvent the government’s difficulties or, like Sha Lei, insist on continuing to report on sensitive issues and eventually have to leave China.
“The CCP continues to expel these foreign media outlets, using news as a new political battleground on the one hand, and their desire to control the discourse on the other. The CCP wants to control their own story, they don’t allow other murmurs.” Su Qiaoning told the station.
Several H&M brick-and-mortar stores in China were closed
The statement made by H&M, Nike and other brands last year that they did not use cotton from Xinjiang has been rehashed and criticized by Chinese official media and netizens. Dilishati, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, which focuses on human rights issues in Xinjiang, told the station that the Chinese government is behind the hype and support, trying to use its own business and consumer market to influence international brands.
“These boycotted international brands face the double dilemma of facing China’s huge consumer market and at the same Time not becoming accomplices in the Communist Party’s crackdown on Uighurs,” he said. He said.
Foreigners demand transparency in international brands’ supply chains, Australia, Japan busy clearing up
A group of more than 50 investors, backed by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a long-standing global organization dedicated to promoting corporate social responsibility, is working with the Chinese government to promote transparency in the supply chain of international brands, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Responsibility), is contacting more than 40 companies, including H & M and Hugo Boss, asking for more information about their supply chains and urging them to stop situations that could lead to human rights abuses.
In addition, the Australian Olympic national team is also involved in the “Xinjiang cotton” storm. Australian Olympic committee (Australian Olympic committee) on Wednesday (31) announced the Tokyo Olympic team’s uniforms, because these clothes by The Japanese sports brand ASICS (ASICS) sponsorship, triggered outside criticism. Because ASICS micro-blog posting said that it will ensure the continued procurement of Xinjiang cotton.
ASICS subsequently held an emergency meeting at its headquarters in Japan for this purpose, and a spokesperson clarified that the above microblog posting was unauthorized and did not represent the official position. The Australian Olympic team also made it clear that the uniforms sponsored by Asics do not include Xinjiang cotton.
Recent Comments