H&M attempt to appease China upsets Vietnam

H&M attempt to win back China custom with map change to show South China Seas islands belonging to Beijing backfires.

Chinese vessels anchored at the Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea. Picture: Maxar Technologies via AFP.

Attempts by H&M to win back custom in China after angering Beijing with criticism of forced labour appear to have triggered another boycott in Vietnam.

The retailer agreed to alter a map on its website to show islands in the South China Sea as belonging to China, after the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources complained that it was mislabelled.

However, Vietnam has a competing claim on the islands and, by amending the map to appease China, H&M faces anger from Vietnamese shoppers.

The Swedish company changed the map after the head of its Shanghai unit was said to have been summoned by the city’s regulator last week and told to improve its “national territory awareness”.

The meeting was held after a Chinese boycott of H&M was triggered last week over its promise to stop sourcing cotton from Xinjiang, a region in China where forced labour and other human rights abuses allegedly occur.

The updated map infringes on Vietnam’s maritime sovereignty, the Saigon Giai Phong newspaper reported, citing the chairman of one of the country’s consumer rights associations.

Vietnamese Twitter and Facebook users have been circulating images of the map that reflect Hanoi’s claim.

“Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands belong to Vietnam! H&M must correct the wrong map immediately if you want to do your business in Vietnam,” one Vietnamese said on Twitter.

China claims more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea, but Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan dispute Beijing over the region.

Representatives for H&M would not comment on the issue.

The Times