The confrontation between China and Western countries intensified on Friday over the fate of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, with new sanctions from Beijing against British figures and several foreign brands now in turmoil in the Chinese market.
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“The United States condemns the Chinese state’s social media campaign, and the boycott of companies and consumers targeting businesses, including American, European and Japanese, for their decision not to use” cotton “from Xinjiang because of forced labor, ”US diplomacy spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters, giving Washington“ support ”for the brands.
According to studies published by American and Australian institutes, refuted by Beijing, at least a million Uyghurs have been interned in “camps” in Xinjiang, in northwest China, and some subjected to “forced labor” , especially in cotton fields. Washington considers that the repression of this Muslim minority constitutes “genocide”.
Several ready-to-wear companies such as the Swedish H&M, the American Nike, the German Adidas and the Japanese Uniqlo pledged last year to boycott cotton from Xinjiang – a region which represents nearly a fifth of global production and supplies many clothing giants.
Diplomatic crisis
The statements of these companies timely reappeared this week on the Chinese social network Weibo, triggering a controversy. A sign of a possible intervention by the Chinese executive, it was the Communist Youth League, affiliated with the ruling party, which launched hostilities.
First company targeted, H&M had already seen Wednesday its products withdrawn from the main Chinese online sales sites. Its stores, however, remain open.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven on Friday gave his support to the world number two in clothing, which accounts for more than 5% of its turnover in China. “It’s great when companies take responsibility for the working conditions of employees all over the world,” he said.
The controversy swelled Thursday with the announcement by several Chinese actors and singers that they were cutting all ties with Nike, Adidas, Uniqlo, Converse or even Calvin Klein, of which they were the ambassadors.
But beyond this controversy, the standoff took on the appearance of a diplomatic crisis over the Uyghurs, mainly Muslims and speaking a Turkic language, who represent a little less than half of the 25 million inhabitants of the country. Xinjiang.
“Gross attacks”
The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada on Monday imposed coordinated sanctions against past or current leaders of this region where Beijing has for several years imposed drastic police surveillance, officially in response to attributed attacks to separatists or Uyghur Islamists.
China, which ensures that the “camps” denounced by the West are “vocational training centers” intended to keep the population away from extremism, replied by first sanctioning ten European personalities, including five elected members of the European Parliament. All are accused of “spreading lies” based on studies that China considers biased.
Beijing on Friday extended its sanctions to nine Britons, including high-ranking parliamentarians, as well as four entities. The Chinese blacklist now includes the Human Rights Commission of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, as well as the former leader of this party, Iain Duncan Smith.
London, with whom tensions continue to accumulate on subjects such as 5G or Hong Kong, was quick to react.
The British targeted by these sanctions play a “vital role” in denouncing “gross violations” of human rights, said Boris Johnson.
Its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dominic Raab, announced the summons of the Chinese ambassador to “explain to him in very clear terms the position” of London.
As long as Beijing “refuses” to give access to Xinjiang to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, he warned, “international pressure will continue to increase”.
A spokeswoman for Chinese diplomacy, Hua Chunying, however, accused the West of being at the origin of the hostilities. China can only “deal with them in a way that they understand and remember,” she said.