Chinese consumers are not as patriotic as China’s rulers portray. Even so, the campaigns against H&M and other foreign companies are an effective leverage for Beijing’s political goals.
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On the internet, many Chinese consumers join the demands for a boycott of H&M and other fashion companies. Whether online activism is actually reflected in purchasing behavior?
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China is increasingly using its position as an important trading partner and sales market as a means of political pressure against foreign companies. The calls for a boycott against fashion companies such as H&M, Nike, Adidas and Burberry are just the latest example of this. The companies got caught up in a controversy over cotton from the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The Chinese government reportedly forced Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to harvest the cotton.
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