China has been pressuring western brands to apologise for perceived slights against its territorial integrity and/or for support for Hong Kong protestors — a trend that has already affected the likes of Givenchy, Coach, and Calvin Klein. In fact, Spanish fashion giant Inditex — the world’s largest retailer, selling in 200 markets via its online platform and 96 markets through 7,400 brick-and-mortar stores issued a public apology to distance itself from the Hong Kong protests and ensure its business won’t be frozen out in China.
This came on the heels of the unprecedented pressure China put on Cathay Pacific to publicly apologise for staff that were involved with the Hong Kong protests, which eventually led to the resignation of the company’s CEO and sent a message to the world that business will have to recognize the “one-China” policy or be punished. The world was waiting to see how long it would take for the Mainland to apply its brute influence across foreign businesses operating in China, and the response was fast.
On September 2, the Inditex-owned fast-fashion brand ZARA closed some stores in Hong Kong. Although it hasn’t been unusual for stores to close or change operating hours during the Hong Kong protests due to unsafe working conditions, staff taking leave to participate in demonstrations, or lack of customer turn-out, the Global Times nevertheless took the opportunity to call out the fashion giant.
Widely recognised as the noisy mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, the paper published an editorial piece on September 1, entitled, Zara faces Chinese boycott after suspected support for the strike in HK, which accused the brand of closing its stores in support of the Hong Kong protests.
