Chinese Artistes Halt Contracts with Fashion Brands Over Xinjiang Controversy
With the Xinjiang cotton controversy escalating between China and the West, many A-list Chinese celebrities stand with China and dropped their endorsement contracts with the associated fashion brands.
Due to concern that cotton sourced from Xinjiang were made with forced labor from minority detention camps, the United States has banned the import of Xinjiang cotton since January, with more foreign governments expected to do so as well. Other textile fibers produced in Xinjiang may also come under scrutiny and if also banned would potentially disrupt global supply chains.
Last September, Swedish fashion retailer H&M issued a statement indicating its concern over labor issues in Xinjiang and decided to stop buying cotton from growers in the region. A similar statement was made by Nike, as well as many other fashion retailers. The allegations stirred a social media storm last week, with many Chinese reprimanding the retailer for “wanting to make money in China while spreading false rumors and boycotting Xinjiang cotton.”
China countered that the forced labor claims are unsubstantiated without any concrete evidence.
A week into the backlash from China and boycott outrage, these brands are now trying to win back Chinese consumers. As China is one of the biggest consumers in the fashion goods market, some brands have quietly removed references to the Xinjiang forced labor issue from their websites.
Nevertheless, many prominent celebrities remain firm in supporting China and have terminated their endorsement contracts as follows:
H&M, Nike, and Tommy Hilfiger: Huang Xuan (黃軒), Victoria Song (宋茜), Wang Yibo (王一博), Tan Songyun (譚松韻), and William Chan (陳偉霆).
Converse: Bai Jingting (白敬亭), Nana Ou-Yang (歐陽娜娜), and Lay Zhang (張藝興).
Uniqlo: Ni Ni (倪妮), Jing Boran (井柏然), Roy Wang (王源), and Lei Jiayin (雷佳音).
Puma: Yang Yang (楊洋), Li Xian (李現), Liu Haoran (劉昊然), Liu Wen (劉雯), Gulinazha (古力娜扎), and Greg Hsu (許光漢).
Calvin Klein: Lay Zhang (張藝興), Greg Hsu (許光漢), Liu Yuxin (劉雨昕), and Chinese girl group THE9.
New Balance: Zhang Zifeng (張子楓) and Meng Meiqi (孟美岐)
The brand that lost the most brand ambassadors is Adidas: Yang Mi (楊冪), Dilraba Dilmurat (迪麗熱巴), Eason Chan (陳奕迅), Angelababy (楊穎), Jackson Wang (王嘉爾), Eddie Peng (彭于晏), Janine Chang (張鈞甯), Song Yanfei (宋妍霏), Deng Lun (鄧倫), Peng Yuchang (彭昱暢), Ren Min (任敏), Ding Yuxi (丁禹兮), Jackson Yee (易烊千璽), and Taiwanese singer Chen Linong (陳立農).
Source: HK01
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
I thought all these brands manufactured products by forced harsh labour all over the world anyway….
As usual, people are afraid to get on CCP’s bad side…
I’m kind glad this happened, because this will set examples for other companies to be careful before they come to a conclusion and if forced labor, if any happened, will be address. On the other hand, this boycott in the end will hurt both China and the Fashion company as China produce and source many of their materials for for those companies they boycott.
Surprised Eason is on there, guess he’s Pro Beijing? The rest I’m not surprised it’s all about the $$$ and being blinded by it as CCP/PRC let’s them do their things as long as they’re pro communism…
@exodus
He’s more against the lies promoted by the US/UK propaganda machine. Don’t forget the infamous weapons of mass destruction lies of US/UK used as an excuse to destroy Iraq with American superbombs and killing untold thousands of innocent muslims.
@msxie0714
This. Nowadays, I question how many of the Human Rights violation US/UK claim against other countries are true. Syria was beautiful and developed before the U.S. meddle in it.
@kidd US has a long history of fomenting coups in small and weak countries that aren’t compliant with US dictates. The target is now China, except it’s no longer an 80 lb weakling. US/UK are resorting to other methods of destabilizing China to uphold anglo saxon domination.
Other China celebrities have the right to do so. IMO Jackson Wang should stay quiet about this. Understand previously a lot of HKers were mad at him when he posted he supports the red flag when he himself is from HK. Now I read that a lot of SK and US ppl are mad at him for this case? He is not only promoting in China but also other countries. Sometimes will be good to stay neutral unless u are from that country itself..but that’s just my opinion tho.
@hayden
Jackson Wang identifies himself as Chinese. So, it is only natural that he supports China. Hong Kong has been part of China since 1997 anyway.
Even in Korean variety show, when people asked, he said he’s Chinese from China. He didn’t say he’s HKer.
I actually respect him for daring to wave and cover himself with the red flag when doing show outside of China, when he didn’t need to do so. He can just stay neutral and no one would blame him. You can see that his love for China is from his heart and not because he’s afraid of CCP.
Yes,, he himself is born in HK and grew up in HK, but, both his parents are from China. His maternal grandfather is a very reputable doctor and pioneer in Medical ultrasound in China. You can see his strong link to China.
@kidd indeed what’s wrong being identified as a chinese. Whether you are from HK or Taiwan ultimately we are chinese. US / UK have always suppressed chinese in the past and I am so glad and proud that the table has turned on them now. China is no longer the sick person from Asia.
Good to see Chinese are fighting back against lies and slander propagated by western media. US’s attempt to destabilize China through terrorism in Xinjiang failed. Chinese government solved this problem through education and development in this region. Western media twisted this fact as some sort of detention camp, while lying about genocide when the Uighur population had more than doubled. Now they are trying to hurt Xinjiang’s cotton industry by lying about forced labor when most of the work is done by John Deere machines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xbnXINy6_8
You can check out local Uighur girl, Guli’s channel, to know more about the real Xinjiang. I hope Chinese consumers will kick H&M out of China because it has a history of human rights abuses and has not apologize for its lies about Xinjiang cotton.