SHANGHAI – H&M has been blocked from using several major Chinese ecommerce platforms including JD.com, Pinduoduo, Tmall and Taobao over its move to no longer use Xinjiang cotton in it supply chains. H&’M’s menswear ambassador in China, actor Huang Xuan, has also terminated his relationship with the Swedish business after ‘netizens’ in China expressed anger online its commitment to stop sourcing from the region. Many posts criticising H&M have now gone viral in the country.
While H&M outlined its position on Xinjiang several months ago, the situation seems to have flared up amid growing tension between the EU and China.
As of November 2020, China was H&M’s second largest market in terms of store numbers, with 505 stores in the country, compared to 582 in the US. In terms of sales, China is H&M’s fourth-biggest market with sales of US$339m in the 12 months through November 2020.
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