The China-based subsidiary of Italian sportswear brand FILA said on Thursday the company has always used cotton produced in the Xinjiang region, as a number of international brands faced a backlash among Chinese consumers after they expressed concerns over forced labor in the region
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2021) The China-based subsidiary of Italian sportswear brand FILA said on Thursday the company has always used cotton produced in the Xinjiang region, as a number of international brands faced a backlash among Chinese consumers after they expressed concerns over forced labor in the region.
"FILA China has always purchased and used cotton produced in China, including from the Xinjiang region. The raw material of FILA China's signature silk-like cotton products is the cotton from Xinjiang," the company said in a statement on its official Weibo account.
FILA China has already started the procedures to withdraw from the Better Cotton Initiative, which has cut ties with cotton production in Xinjiang over forced labor concerns.
Similar to a number of international brands including Adidas, H&M and Nike, the Italian company was also caught in the storm of nationalistic outcry from Chinese consumers in recent days. The controversy started after Chinese state media began to circulate previous statements from these companies, in which they expressed concerns over forced labor being utilized in the cotton production in Xinjiang.
China has called the "forced labor" accusation as baseless and presented several videos demonstrating that most of the cotton in Xinjiang was collected by machines.
Angry Chinese consumers called for the boycott of the involved international brands and a number of Chinese celebrities announced decisions to cut ties with those brands on Weibo.
The nationalistic backlash against international brands in China emerged after the United States and its Western Allies, including the European Union and Canada, introduced sanctions against Chinese officials over alleged abuses in Xinjiang. Beijing slapped counter-sanctions against EU officials at once in retaliation.
