#H&M, Burberry scrubbed from internet in China over forced labor accusations

H&M stores are virtually disappearing in China amid a rapidly exploding controversy over human rights violations in its cotton-picking region.

Beijing consumers could not find locations for the fast-fashion retailer on either Apple Maps or Baidu Maps on Friday, according to Bloomberg, although stores for other retailers, including Japan-based Uniqlo, continue to be listed.

Burberry, meanwhile, became the first luxury brand to be ensnared in Beijing’s apparent crackdown of critics of its labor practices in the Xinjiang region.

The company’s trademark plaid design was scrubbed from a popular video game in China — Honor of Kings — and a Chinese actress who had been tapped as a brand ambassador terminated her contract, according to Reuters.

The Biden administration on Friday blasted the boycotts and said they are being led by China’s ruling Communist Party to punish companies that have chosen to avoid cotton from the region amid allegations of forced labor of a minority group known as the Uyghurs.

“The United States condemns the …state-led social-media campaign and corporate and consumer boycott against companies, including American, European and Japanese businesses,” State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter said.

H&M was removed from Alibaba’s e-commerce platform earlier this week after a group linked to China’s ruling party posted on Chinese social media site Weibo a critical statement H&M had released in September.

The statement said the company was “deeply concerned” over reports of forced labor in the production of cotton in Xinjiang and emphasized that it didn’t source its cotton from that region.

Both Nike and Adidas have made similar statements about not sourcing their products from Xinjiang. There were calls this week in China for boycotts of their products as well.

China’s Communist Youth League and the People’s Liberation Army both spoke out earlier this week specifically against H&M’s statements — which appear to have been deleted from its social media accounts.

On Friday, the Chinese government spoke out against “lies and disinformation” about Xinjiang in response to the United Kingdom imposing sanctions this week for alleged human rights abuses in that region. 

London-based Burberry is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative, which promotes sustainable cotton production and which said last year that it was suspending its approval of cotton sourced from Xinjiang. Burberry’s cotton is sourced from the US, Australia, India, Turkey and Egypt, its website says.

Burberry’s Chinese brand ambassador, Zhou Dongyu, said she would no longer work with the fashion giant because it had not “clearly and publicly stated its stance on cotton from Xinjiang,” according to Reuters.

It’s not clear who is responsible for eliminating H&M’s store listings from the map software, but it’s widely known that the Chinese government controls and censors social media content in the country, restricting access to its 1.4 billion consumers.