The effects are already being felt by the stock market. Last night H&M China stated on Weibo “we are always transparent to the global supply chain, following OECD Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct, not representing any political stances.” The brand also emphasized that it has always been respectfully treating the Chinese market. Mark Schiefelbein/Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. With more than 500 million monthly active users, Weibo is one of China's most popular social media platforms. It’s not just consumers who aren’t supporting the business anymore either.

The boycott has moved into the digital space These include phrases which translate as “I stand for XUAR cotton”, “XUAR cotton workers talking about working experiences”, and “working scenes of cotton-picking machines in XUAR.” Posts with these hashtags argue that H&M’s forced labour accusations are defamatory and the result of political conspiracies. Hashtags related to the XUAR cotton industry have been trending over the last few days. “Aiming to earn money while cooking up false accusations which badly hurt Chinese consumers, what a wishful thought! Chinese consumers will defend themselves,” CCTV posted on its official Weibo page. The Communist Youth League and government-affiliated media described H&M Group’s statement as “filled with misinformation and defamation upon China.” Government voices on social media have reacted quickly to the accusations this week. In a due diligence report released in October, H&M referred to the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI)’s forced-labour statement of cotton from XUAR.

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