H&M angers Vietnam in bid to appease China

H&M, along with Nike, Adidas and Burberry, were criticised by the Chinese government last week when statements condemning the use of forced labour in the cotton industry in the Xinjiang region resurfaced.

The Western retailers were blasted on social media and faced a consumer boycott, while some their products were also removed from major Chinese etailers Alibaba and JD.com.

In a bid to appease tensions, H&M agreed to change the map on its website to label islands in the South China Sea as belonging to China, after the retailer received complaints from the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources.

H&M altered the map after the head of its Shanghai office was summoned to a meeting with city regulators and instructed to improve its “national territory awareness”.

However, these islands are the subject of much debate, with Vietnam holding a competing claim and thus angered by H&M’s decision.

Vietnamese Twitter and Facebook users have expressed their outrage at the move, claiming that H&M must correct the map if they wish to do business in Vietnam.