Management Communication, 7th Edition

Case 10.2: Hennes & Mauritz (H&M)Standing Up for Human Rights in China

DOI: 10.4324/9781003331490-39

For you, China is still an important market. But for China, you are just an unnecessary brand.

Chinese social media post criticizing H&M¹

Introduction

“I won’t go.” A solemn and strong response, but one ill-received by the government officials and TV journalists in Buzaynap’s living room. The 19-year-old Uyghur woman has been told she is to start a job in Anhui Province, nearly 2,500 miles from her village in Southwest Xinjiang. Her father pleads on her behalf: “There must be someone else who’d like to go. We can make our living here, let us live a life like this.” The exchange was captured in a 2017 Chinese state-run television report (obtained ...