Chinese boycott against international brands that turn their backs on the world's cotton cradle

The Chinese region of Xinjiang for the United States is a place where at least one million people belonging to the Uyghur ethnic group - a Muslim minority made up of 14.93 million people - are held against their will in places that Beijing calls "vocational training centers". ", in which they are forced to work in factories. For its part, China defends that policies against this ethnic group from the extreme northwest of the country help prevent terrorism and protect national security.

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With the argument of defending human rights and ensuring that no products made with forced labor in China enter the United States market, President Joe Biden approved the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act this December. The Walmart supermarket chain was accused this month of also banning Xinjiang products from its Chinese stores.

Consumers realized this when they saw the scarcity of red dates and apples on the shelves of Walmart and Sam's Club (which is also part of the Walmart empire), fruits that, together with cotton, coal, sugar, tomatoes and polysilicon, are products star of Xinjiang production. Customers took their discontent to the country's social media to the point that the topic was the top trend on Weibo, with more than 170 million views and more than 10,000 posts. In the posts, users shared photos unsubscribing from their subscriptions with these places. In addition, the Chinese Communist Youth League account urged the public to participate in a boycott against Walmart.

Other Western businesses, such as H&M and Nike, have also been targets of consumer anger this year after declaring they would not use any more Xinjiang cotton in their clothing. Swedish clothing items disappeared from Taobao and JD.com, the main e-commerce platforms in the Asian giant, and from the Internet in general in China. 90% of the cotton produced in the country comes from this region, according to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

“Spread rumors to boycott Xinjiang cotton and at the same time want to make money in China? Not even in dreams!” the Chinese Communist Youth League wrote on its Weibo account in response to H&M's attitude. While the popular Chinese singer and actor Wang Yibo broke his contract with Nike.

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There is also the opposite face, as it is the official Weibo account of Carrefour that took advantage of the controversy surrounding its competitor Walmart and published several photos of apples, nuts and cotton socks and towels on its shelves along with yellow labels that read: "I come from Xinjiang." In China, Carrefour's more than 200 supermarkets are owned by Suning.com, one of the country's largest private home appliance retailers.

Although the new law to protect the human rights of the Uyghur ethnic group has had the support of both Houses, at the end of 2020, the New York Times reported that US giants such as Nike, Coca-Cola and Apple had spent millions to lobby against this measure. The reason for opposition from the companies was that this new regulation could wreak havoc on the production chains they have in China.

In 2020, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) revealed that at least 80,000 Uighurs have been transferred from Xinjiang province, some directly from detention centers, to factories across China producing for dozens of multinational brands, including Apple and Nike.

Several human rights groups have linked many multinationals to the region, such as Coca-Cola, which, according to the accusations, used Xinjiang sugar, or Nike, which made shoes with Uyghur workers in a factory in Qingdao. However, both Coca-Cola and Nike denied that they were involved in any kind of forced labor in their supply chains.

Despite the fact that this new law has increased the tension between the two superpowers. Some experts point out that this rule is not strict enough, since the raw material collected in Xinjiang factories can continue to reach the United States if they are sent to other countries for the manufacture of third-party products, such as clothing.

Another criticism surrounding the new regulations is that moving companies away from Xinjiang, which produces more than a fifth of the world's cotton, as well as 45% of the market for polysilicon - a key material for the construction of solar panels - could fuel inflation at a time when US consumer prices are rising at their fastest rate in 39 years.