China investigates US company for refusing to buy Xinjiang cotton

Read RFA coverage of this story in Uyghur.

China has launched an investigation into PVH Corp., the U.S. parent company of fashion brands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, for suspected discriminatory measures by refusing to purchase cotton and other products from its northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to 12 million Uyghurs.

Analysts said the measure appears to be a retaliatory response by Beijing against companies complying with U.S. laws that ban the import of materials and products from Xinjiang suspected of using Uyghur forced labor.

“China is attempting to retaliate against U.S. sanctions on Xinjiang region by imposing its own sanctions on companies that follow U.S. sanctions,” said Anders Corr, principal of the New York-based political risk firm Corr Analytics. “It’s a very bad idea.”

“Beijing is trying to tell Calvin Klein not to follow U.S. law but to follow Chinese law,” he said.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday that PVH Corp. must provide documentation and evidence within 30 days to show it did not engage in discriminatory practices over the past three years.

“The U.S. PVH Group is suspected of violating normal market trading principles and unreasonably boycotting Xinjiang cotton and other products without factual basis, seriously damaging the legitimate rights and interests of relevant Chinese companies and endangering China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this month, China adopted a resolution condemning a series of U.S. sanctions against the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and providing support for affected companies.

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In response to the measure, Alison Rappaport, PVH’s vice president of external communications, said the company maintains strict compliance with relevant laws and regulations in the countries and regions where it operates. 

“We are in communication with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and will respond in accordance with the relevant regulations,” she said, without further comment.

Genocide

In 2021, the U.S. government declared that China’s repression of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, the sterilization of women, forced labor and cultural and religious erasure, amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. Legislatures in several Western countries passed similar declarations.

To punish China and get it to change its policies, the United States and other countries have banned the import of products from Xinjiang produced by Uyghur labor. About 90% of China’s cotton is produced in Xinjiang, most of which is exported.

Since June 2022, the U.S. government has blacklisted companies in China that make products linked to forced labor in Xinjiang under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, or UFLPA. 

The law also authorizes sanctions on foreign individuals and entities found responsible for human rights abuses in the northwestern region. 

More than 80 companies are now on the entity list. 

This May, the U.S. Homeland Security Department added 26 Chinese textile companies to the entity list under the act, restricting them from entering the U.S. market. 

Consequences

Henryk Szadziewski, research director at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said China is using the measure to lash back over criticism of its policies in Xinjiang.

“This is very much a message to multinational corporations that they should not comply with sanctions and other kinds of bans placed on entities operating in Xinjiang,” he said. “It definitely is a countermeasure to what is being done outside of China.”

Nevertheless, multinational companies that adhere to U.S. sanctions and exclude forced labor products from their supply chains could face repercussions in China, Szadziewski said.

“If you do want to operate in China, you really have to operate by their rules and not by the rules of elsewhere,” he said.

Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcom Foster.