Nike’s decision not to use cotton from China’s contested Xinjiang area has enraged Chinese fans, who are burning their coveted sneakers.
After issuing a statement highlighting allegations of forced labour of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the sports business received a huge retaliation and boycott on the Chinese social networking site Weibo.
Nike’s Xinjiang statement was not listed, but it was made public after the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada placed restrictions on Chinese officials this week for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. China responded by imposing sanctions on European institutions and representatives.
The statement said, “We are worried about allegations of forced labour in and around the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.” “Nike does not import goods from the XUAR, and our subcontract vendors have stated that they do not use fabrics or spinning fabric from the area.”
Nike also said it was doing “ongoing diligence” with its Chinese suppliers to “identify and determine possible forced labour threats employment – related of Uyghurs, or other minority groups from XUAR, in other parts of China.”
For years, Chinese authorities have targeted the Uyghur community, a Muslim ethnic minority. Since 2016, more than 1 million Uyghurs have been detained in hundreds of camps, and the US has accused China of genocide.
The social media frenzy over Nike’s comments exploded on Weibo on Thursday, when screenshots and translations of the statement went viral, sparking over 1 million discussion threads about the brand in just six hours.
“The Nike comment is f—-ing gross. It makes me want to throw up. Nike has the audacity to demand that its collaborators refrain from using cotton from Xinjiang. Get the hell out of China, “said Langli Chitiao, a Weibo user from Beijing. People started sharing videos of themselves burning Nike Air Jordans and Air Force 1s, with some videos receiving over 100,000 views.
“All of my Nikes were engulfed by flames. This is a matter of national pride for the United States. We are not going to be embarrassed, “Xuanxuan Mingying, a consumer with the ID Xuanxuan Mingying, wrote.
The anti-Nike vitriol is a complete 180-degree turn, given that Nike has long had a cult following in China, with bidding wars and a thriving black market for limited-edition sneakers operating on its social media channels.
However, Nike isn’t the only company that has enraged Chinese social media users. According to the New York Times, the Swedish fast-fashion chain H&M’s items are being pulled from major Chinese online shopping sites as part of a mass boycott.
For years, human-rights organisations have accused major retailers of using slave labour, and recently, many companies have publicly stated their opposition to the practise.
Adidas, Gap, Fila, New Balance, Zara, and Under Armour have all released statements claiming that they would not use Xinjiang cotton, adding to a growing list of “brands to blacklist” on Weibo.
Muji, on the other hand, has confirmed that it will continue to use Xinjiang cotton. On Weibo, the decision became a top-trending issue, with the trending subject “Muji’s survival instinct.”
