Calvin Klein And Tommy Hilfiger Face China Backlash Over Cotton ‘Boycott’

China has started an investigation into the company which owns major U.S. fashion brands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, for “boycotting Xinjiang cotton and other products.”
The country’s Ministry of Commerce initiated its probe into the PVH Group under the terms of the Unreliable Entity List, a list officially released in 2020 specifying which foreign firms or individuals have violated Chinese market rules or contractual obligations, according to the South China Morning Post.
Organizations on the list are banned from trading with China, SCMP reported, and it would also prevent those associated with the company or any blacklisted individuals from getting into the country or investing in it, the Hong Kong-based outlet added.
Newsweek has contacted a spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in Washington via email in relation to the investigation.
When approached for comment on the investigation, PVH shared the following statement with Newsweek, “As a matter of company policy, PVH maintains strict compliance with all relevant laws and regulations in all countries and regions in which we operate. We are in communication with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and will respond in accordance with the relevant regulations. We have no further comment at this time.”
Per the South China Morning Post report, the ministry said that the PVH Group is suspected of “violating normal market transaction principles by arbitrarily boycotting Xinjiang cotton and other products.”
The ministry reportedly said this action “severely undermines the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises” and “threatens China’s sovereignty, security and development interests.”
Following the investigation launch, PVH is required to submit any written documents from the past three years, within the next 30 days, that relate to the raised issue.
In that time, while the office of the Unreliable Entity List carries out its probe into the firm, the company can present a defense.
Director of the SOAS China Institute, Professor Steve Tsang, told Newsweek, the Chinese Government under Xi Jinping “thinks that its policy in Xinjiang is about levelling up the ethnic minorities there” and is therefore “a force for good.”
This means that “it sees any Western company with operations there taking any action that implies otherwise as hostile to China,” the professor added.
Tsang said that if companies want to continue operating in China, it is on those companies to “correct their ‘mistakes,'” which he added applies to Western companies “which are not offering cutting edge technologies of strategic value to China.”
As fashion houses do not offer technologies that China needs or wants, the professor said that “Beijing sees them as needing China much more than China needing them,” meaning that “Beijing will use its economic clout to require Western companies to bend the knees where it can.”
In relation to the investigation, he concluded, “if Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger do not comply, they can expect pressure being put on them [to intensify].”
China has reported boycotts of Xinjiang cotton frequently in recent years, after multiple Western countries imposed sanctions on officials in China in 2021 over rights abuses against mostly the Muslim Uighur minority group, as reported by the BBC.
The abuses have been reported to be in the Xinjiang region, where cotton is manufactured, and it was believed that the minority group are being forced into labor as well as other acts that breach their human rights.
Beijing has denied that any human rights abuses are taking place in Xinjiang, the South China Morning Post reported.
Nike and H&M were targeted by China in the same month the sanctions were imposed in 2021, after they expressed concerns over the human rights allegations, the BBC reported.
It was reported that, as a result, three major Chinese e-commerce platforms, listed as Pinduoduo, JD.com and Tmall, removed H&M products from sale in their stores.
According to the South China Morning Post, H&M stores in a number of cities, including Urumqi and Jinan, were also closed down at the time, but Nike appeared to be trading as normal.
Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact  [email protected].