h&m in china case study

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H&M in China

By: Andrew Inkpen, Jonas Gamso

In March 2021, the Chinese government blocked access to H&M on leading e-commerce, ride-hailing, daily-deals, and map sites. The online blocking and calls for customer boycotts were in response to…

• Length: 9 page(s)
• Publication Date: Aug 31, 2021
• Discipline: Business Ethics
• Product #: TB0642-PDF-ENG

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In March 2021, the Chinese government blocked access to H&M on leading e-commerce, ride-hailing, daily-deals, and map sites. The online blocking and calls for customer boycotts were in response to H&M's September 2020 statement that it would no longer source cotton from Xinjiang because of concerns about forced labor. At the time, H&M operated more than 500 stores in China, and it was the company's fourth largest country market. How will the boycott impact the H&M brand in China? How will H&M's decision impact its brand in other markets, such as the U.S., Germany, and the UK? Should H&M change its sourcing stance in China? Which stakeholders should H&M target in its messaging? Should H&M issue new supply chain statements?

Learning Objectives

In examining H&M in the Chinese market, students will learn about:

The challenges of balancing corporate CSR policies with national market strategies

The risks of CSR decisions on brand reputation

The balance between the benefits of outsourcing and its strategic risks

The relevant stakeholders impacted by CSR decisions

How to respond to local market brand and reputation problems with an action plan

Aug 31, 2021

Discipline:

Business Ethics

Geographies:

Industries:

Retail and consumer goods

Thunderbird School of Global Management

TB0642-PDF-ENG

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H&M in China

In March 2021, the Chinese government blocked access to H&M on leading e-commerce, ride-hailing, daily-deals, and map sites. The online blocking and calls for customer boycotts were in response to H&M’s September 2020 statement that it would no longer source cotton from Xinjiang because of concerns about forced labor. At the time, H&M operated more than 500 stores in China, and it was the company’s fourth largest country market. How will the boycott impact the H&M brand in China? How will H&M’s decision impact its brand in other markets, such as the U.S., Germany, and the UK? Should H&M change its sourcing stance in China? Which stakeholders should H&M target in its messaging? Should H&M issue new supply chain statements?

Andrew Inkpen

Jonas Gamso

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H&M responds to a firestorm in China over Xinjiang cotton.

By Elizabeth Paton

• March 31, 2021

More than a week after the Swedish retailer H&M came under fire in China for a months-old statement expressing concern over reports of Uyghur forced labor in the region of Xinjiang, a major source of cotton, the company published a statement saying it hoped to regain the trust of customers in China.

In recent days, H&M and other Western clothing brands including Nike and Burberry that expressed concerns over reports coming out of Xinjiang have faced an outcry on Chinese social media, including calls for a boycott endorsed by President Xi Jinping’s government. The brands’ local celebrity partners have terminated their contracts, Chinese landlords have shuttered stores and their products have been removed from major e-commerce platforms.

Caught between calls for patriotism among Chinese consumers and campaigns for conscientious sourcing of cotton in the West, some other companies, including Inditex, the owner of the fast-fashion giant Zara, quietly removed statements on forced labor from their websites.

On Wednesday, H&M, the world’s second-largest fashion retailer by sales after Inditex, published a response to the controversy as part of its first quarter 2021 earnings report.

Not that it said much. There were no explicit references to cotton, Xinjiang or forced labor. However, the statement said that H&M wanted to be “a responsible buyer, in China and elsewhere” and was “actively working on next steps with regards to material sourcing.”

“We are dedicated to regaining the trust and confidence of our customers, colleagues, and business partners in China,” it said.

During the earnings conference call, the chief executive, Helena Helmersson, noted the company’s “long-term commitment to the country” and how Chinese suppliers, which were “at the forefront of innovation and technology,” would continue to “play an important role in further developing the entire industry.”

“We are working together with our colleagues in China to do everything we can to manage the current challenges and find a way forward,” she said.

Executives on the call did not comment on the impact of the controversy on sales, except to state that around 20 stores in China were currently closed.

H&M’s earnings report, which covered a period before the recent outcry in China, reflected diminished profit for a retailer still dealing with pandemic lockdowns. Net sales in the three months through February fell 21 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago, with more than 1,800 stores temporarily closed.

Elizabeth Paton is a reporter for the Styles section, covering the fashion and luxury sectors in Europe. Before joining The Times in 2015, she was a reporter at the Financial Times both in London and New York. More about Elizabeth Paton

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Statement on H&M in China

News article.

We are working together with our colleagues in China to do everything we can to manage the current challenges and find a way forward.

China is a very important market to us and our long-term commitment to the country remains strong. Having been present there for more than thirty years, we have witnessed remarkable progress within the Chinese textile industry. Being at the forefront of innovation and technology, China will clearly continue to play an important role in further developing the entire industry. We are proud our suppliers are being part of that development and we want to continue contributing to driving progress together with our partners and stakeholders in the country. We want to be a responsible buyer, in China and elsewhere, and are now building forward-looking strategies and actively working on next steps with regards to material sourcing. Together with all relevant stakeholders, we want to collaborate to be part of the solution and jointly build a more sustainable fashion industry.

As a global company, we comply with local laws and regulatory frameworks in all the markets where we operate. Our company values are built on trust, respect, integrity, and dialogue. We wish to focus on our core business and on what we do best – bringing fashion and design to our customers all around the world.

We are dedicated to regaining the trust and confidence of our customers, colleagues, and business partners in China. By working together with stakeholders and partners, we believe we can take steps in our joint efforts to develop the fashion industry, as well as serve our customers and act in a respectful way.

Global Business

H&M in China

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Publication Date: August 31, 2021

In March 2021, the Chinese government blocked access to H&M on leading e-commerce, ride-hailing, daily-deals, and map sites. The online blocking and calls for customer boycotts were in response to H&M's September 2020 statement that it would no longer source cotton from Xinjiang because of concerns about forced labor. At the time, H&M operated more than 500 stores in China, and it was the company's fourth largest country market. How will the boycott impact the H&M brand in China? How will H&M's decision impact its brand in other markets, such as the U.S., Germany, and the UK? Should H&M change its sourcing stance in China? Which stakeholders should H&M target in its messaging? Should H&M issue new supply chain statements?

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H&m, china, and cotton: sourcing a solution, product overview.

In December 2021, Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), the Swedish fast-fashion clothing retailer, found itself in a difficult position regarding its business in China, one of the retailer’s important markets. H&M was a member of the sustainability organization, Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), which in March 2020 had suspended activities with licensed farmers in the Xinjiang province of China because of allegations of forced labor and human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in that region. H&M’s statement of support for BCI’s actions, released in September 2020, had generated a fierce backlash from China. H&M’s business in that country, both online and in stores, virtually disappeared. Complicating the situation, the option of negotiating peace over Xinjiang cotton had now been taken out of the company’s hands by the passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (HR 1115), signed into law by US president Joe Biden on December 23, 2021, which prohibited “imports made by forced labor into the United States of products made in Xinjiang.” The law would be implemented six months later on June 21, 2022. The European Union (EU), which in October 2021 had promised a ban on imports from the Xinjiang region, was also expected to act on that promise soon. H&M needed to decide how to navigate the tricky and delicate impasse with China. What could the company do about the allegations of human rights abuses in the supply chain when there was no way thus far to irrefutably confirm or deny their existence at the source? And how could it appease China without sacrificing its values and commitment to sustainably sourced cotton? There were few supply options outside China. Additionally, China was a major market. Yet H&M had joined and was committed to the move toward sustainable operations. How could it reconcile the conflicting pressures?

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H&M vows to rebuild trust in China after Xinjiang backlash

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A year-old H&M statement about Xinjiang cotton is getting fierce blowback in China

H&M is facing a harsh backlash in China over a year-old statement it made expressing concerns about forced labor in Xinjiang.

On Weibo, a large Chinese social media platform, users have called for a boycott of the Swedish fast-fashion chain. It also appears to be blocked on China’s biggest e-commerce sites. On Alibaba’s Tmall platform, H&M’s official store is no longer accessible , and searches for its products on Taobao, Pinduoduo, and JD.com return no results, multiple sources have reported.

Actor Huang Xuan and singer Victoria Song, whom H&M had previously signed as brand ambassadors in the country, both emphasized they were no longer working with H&M. In a statement, Huang said he opposes behavior that “spreads rumor about China and human rights.”

State media has also gone on the attack against H&M. Broadcaster CCTV criticized the company for “eating China’s rice while smashing its pot,” France 24 reports . The Beijing-backed Global Times spotlighted comments from angry social media users calling for H&M to leave China, where H&M had more than 500 stores (pdf) and generated just over $1.1 billion in sales last year.

The uproar appears to have started after the Communist Youth League, once a powerful organization for grooming Chinese officials , lashed out at H&M on Weibo, according to fashion trade outlet WWD (paywall). “Spreading rumors to boycott Xinjiang cotton, while also wanting to make money in China? Wishful thinking!” it said. It included H&M’s statement in reply to the decision by Better Cotton Initiative, an organization focused on improving cotton’s environmental and social sustainability, to stop working in Xinjiang last year.

Western companies risk angering Beijing

The company has addressed its ties to Xinjiang in the past year as Western researchers and authorities allege China is pressing Uyghurs and other predominately Muslim ethnic minorities into forced labor and internment camps. Xinjiang is a major source of products such as cotton and tomatoes believed to be produced with forced labor and that make their way into the supply chains of international corporations. H&M has said (pdf) it is “deeply concerned” by the allegations and that it does not source products from Xinjiang. It declined to comment on the anger it is now contending with in the country.

It’s unclear why a year-old statement has become the center of the outrage online, but it comes as tensions escalate between China and western nations. This week, the US, European Union, and Canada imposed coordinated sanctions on Chinese officials they accused of human rights abuses in Xinjiang. China, which has routinely denied the claims, immediately struck back with sanctions on European officials and organizations.

The situation puts multinational corporations in a sensitive position. Many companies in clothing, footwear, and other industries are trying to distance themselves from ties to Xinjiang. But in doing so, they risk angering Beijing, which has a history of mobilizing citizens to punish foreign companies that take positions opposing its own. The costs can be high. The National Basketball Association lost hundreds of millions over a spat with Beijing after a team’s general manager voiced his support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

Companies have refrained from condemning China’s actions in Xinjiang. But plenty have made statements against forced labor and insist they don’t source from the region, including big names such as Nike , Uniqlo , and Inditex , owner of Zara.

Chinese companies may take a different course. Vice News reports that Anta, China’s homegrown sports giant, has released a statement on Weibo saying it has always used Chinese cotton, including from Xinjiang.

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Head of NASA claims China is conducting military experiments in space

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NASA’s administrator, Bill Nelson, is once again making some pretty big claims about China’s ongoing space missions. While it is no secret that China’s secret space plane is doing things we don’t fully understand, Nelson claims that the country’s entire space program is actually just a cover-up for China’s ongoing military space experiments.

That said, China’s advancements in space exploration have improved drastically in the last several years, and Nelson seems to think that’s all because of China’s military space experiments. Of course, these claims are also being thrown around at the same time that Nelson and NASA as a whole are asking for more money, requesting roughly $25.384 billion for funding in 2025.

This isn’t all that surprising, especially considering the problems that NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission are facing right now in regards to budget. The interesting thing is, though, that Nelson doesn’t seem to have any actual data to back up these claims, at least not that he’s openly sharing. Instead, he just continues to make remarks about how China is advancing in the last decade.

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Sure, that might be troublesome, and who knows, perhaps China is pouring money into its military space experiments. But so far, the country has given no indication publicly that it plans to hoard resources if it gets to the Moon first , or that the Chinese space station is anything more than a traditional research facility just like NASA’s International Space Station. In fact, China has even rebutted such claims that it plans to “steal the Moon.”

Obviously, I cannot speak to the validity of the statements about China’s military space experiments. But I can say that accusations without substantial data to back them up can only enflame tensions even more, and possibly lead to issues with other allies in our space exploration endeavors.

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Study on deformation and failure mechanism of low-dip red bed slope with soft-hard interbedded structure: a case study of Chishui, China

• Original Paper
• Published: 23 April 2024

Cite this article

• Qin Yigen 1 , 2 ,
• Yang Genlan 1 , 2 ,
• Liu Bangyu 3 &
• Xu Jinxing 4  

Taking the Chishui Wanglong slope as a case study, the actual deformation characteristics of the slope were obtained through geological field surveys. Using the base contact friction experiment and PFC discrete element numerical simulation, the deformation and failure mechanism of the low-dip red bed soft-hard interbedded slope were investigated. The results indicate that the Wanglong slope is a typical low-dip red bed slope with a soft-hard interbedded structure, characterized by falling and toppling failure as the primary deformation modes. The deformation and failure of the slope are primarily controlled by the depth of the concave cavity formed by differential weathering. Comprehensive analysis reveals that the slope's deformation and failure evolution process can be described as unloading cracks expansion stage, differential weathering stage, and slope deformation and failure stage. The findings of this study can be applied to develop a theoretical framework for determining the prevention and control measures of this type of engineering slope in the Chishui red bed area, which is crucial for reducing the potential risk of geological disasters.

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This study was supported by the Basic Research Program of Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Foundation (ZK [2021] Basic 200).

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College of Resource and Environment Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

Qin Yigen & Yang Genlan

Key Laboratory of Karst Georesources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 500025, China

Natural Resources Bureau of Yinjiang Autonomous County, Guizhou Province, Tongren, 555299, China

Sichuan Xingshu Engineering Survey and Design Group Co., Ltd., Chengdu, 610072, China

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Conceptualization, GY and YQ; methodology, GY and YQ; software, YQ; validation, YQ and BL; formal analysis, GY and BL; investigation, YQ, BL and JX; resources, GY; data curation, BL and JX; writing—original draft preparation, YQ; writing—review and editing, GY; visualization, YQ; supervision, YQ; project administration, GY; funding acquisition, GY All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Yigen, Q., Genlan, Y., Bangyu, L. et al. Study on deformation and failure mechanism of low-dip red bed slope with soft-hard interbedded structure: a case study of Chishui, China. Nat Hazards (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-024-06617-x

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Received : 30 March 2023

Accepted : 04 April 2024

Published : 23 April 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-024-06617-x

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The rectangular tile classification model based on Sentinel integrated images enhances grassland mapping accuracy: A case study in Ordos, China

Affiliations.

• 1 School of Surveying and Land Information Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, Henan, China.
• 2 Research Centre of Arable Land Protection and Urban-Rural High-Quality Development of Yellow River Basin, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, China.
• 3 School of Geological Engineering and Geomatics, Chang'an University, Xi'an, China.
• PMID: 38626150
• PMCID: PMC11020762
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301444

Arid zone grassland is a crucial component of terrestrial ecosystems and plays a significant role in ecosystem protection and soil erosion prevention. However, accurately mapping grassland spatial information in arid zones presents a great challenge. The accuracy of remote sensing grassland mapping in arid zones is affected by spectral variability caused by the highly diverse landscapes. In this study, we explored the potential of a rectangular tile classification model, constructed using the random forest algorithm and integrated images from Sentinel-1A (synthetic aperture radar imagery) and Sentinel-2 (optical imagery), to enhance the accuracy of grassland mapping in the semiarid to arid regions of Ordos, China. Monthly Sentinel-1A median value images were synthesised, and four MODIS vegetation index mean value curves (NDVI, MSAVI, NDWI and NDBI) were used to determine the optimal synthesis time window for Sentinel-2 images. Seven experimental groups, including 14 experimental schemes based on the rectangular tile classification model and the traditional global classification model, were designed. By applying the rectangular tile classification model and Sentinel-integrated images, we successfully identified and extracted grasslands. The results showed the integration of vegetation index features and texture features improved the accuracy of grassland mapping. The overall accuracy of the Sentinel-integrated images from EXP7-2 was 88.23%, which was higher than the accuracy of the single sensor Sentinel-1A (53.52%) in EXP2-2 and Sentinel-2 (86.53%) in EXP5-2. In all seven experimental groups, the rectangular tile classification model was found to improve overall accuracy (OA) by 1.20% to 13.99% compared to the traditional global classification model. This paper presents novel perspectives and guidance for improving the accuracy of remote sensing mapping for land cover classification in arid zones with highly diverse landscapes. The study presents a flexible and scalable model within the Google Earth Engine framework, which can be readily customized and implemented in various geographical locations and time periods.

Copyright: © 2024 Guo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

• Remote Sensing Technology / methods
• Satellite Imagery* / methods

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

This article is part of the research topic.

Destination Advertising in the Digital Age

A Study on the Construction of Destination Image for China's County-Level Integrated Media Centers: A Case Study of Four Counties in Fuzhou Provisionally Accepted

• 1 Communication University of China, China
• 2 South China University of Technology, China

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Today, as social media plays an increasingly important role in disseminating destination images, short videos have emerged as the primary channel through which tourists obtain information about their desired destinations. In comparison to traditional methods of using text and pictures, the new media accounts of local government agencies offer a means to convey more comprehensive local news and shape destination images that are more accurate and diverse, leveraging the potential of the short video platform. This study utilizes a combination of manual analysis (subject terms classification) and computer-assisted techniques (key-frame extraction and text mining) to examine the short videos posted on the TikTok (Douyin) platform by the integrated media centers of Minhou County, Yongtai County, Minqing County, and Lianjiang County in Fuzhou City, China. The objective is to explore the shared characteristics and variations in the dimensional aspects of destination images. The findings reveal that the short video contents released by the governmental new media accounts in these four locations primarily highlight three dimensions: stakeholders, urban infrastructures, and regional landscapes. These dimensions are evident in both descriptive texts and visual symbols.However, in terms of the presented destination image, a notable degree of homogeneity is observed, and there is a lack of emphasis on uncovering and presenting the cultural dimensions, thus failing to fully reflect the distinctive local characteristics.Consequently, it is essential for local integrated media centers to thoroughly explore the cultural uniqueness of their respective regions and enhance the development of thematic dimensions in creating short video content. This approach will effectively strengthen tourists' association with and perception of destination images.

Keywords: Short videos, Destination images, TikTok Platform, Governmental New Media, visual symbol

Received: 29 Nov 2023; Accepted: 23 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Lin, Wen and Ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Mx. Hanzheng Lin, Communication University of China, Beijing, China

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