In a statement last year, H and M said that it was deeply concerned by reports of forced labor and discrimination against Xinjiang's Muslim minorities.

Then on Wednesday, the Chinese Communist Youth League posted this message on social media, saying spreading rumors to boycott Xinjiang cotton while wanting to make money in China.

Wishful thinking.

Shortly after H and M disappeared from two of China's major shopping platforms, Chinese state TV released photos mocking the H and M logo, calling it ridiculous.

And even celebrities have claimed they're breaking ties with the retailer.

Our correspondent, Robin Brandt, is in Shanghai and explains why this is happening now.

H and M is big here in Shanghai.

Speaker across China.

This is one of its multitude of locations in this country.

But what's striking about what we've seen in the last 24 hours is how quickly and how all of a sudden apparently this campaign, led by celebrity endorsers and led by some arms of the ruling Communist Party, has come out of nowhere.

Uh, And also what's so striking is how it's gathered pace in a matter of hours.

So this is all about H and M's proclamation going back last year, which you just referred to, uh, saying it wanted to purge its supply chain of cotton that was used and harvested in Xinjiang.

That's the Western province in China, where China is accused of abuses against the Muslim minority there.

Genocide is actually how now President Biden's administration has classified the abuses going on.

Um, so what's most intriguing is that all of a sudden, just a few days after coordinated sanctions were imposed by the U.

K, the U.

S.

And the European Union, we have arms of the Communist Party.

The celebrity endorsers happy to take hmm, money up until now, all of a sudden coming out of nowhere, bailing on the company and encouraging others to do the same.

And the other end of the scale you have retailers like Muji, the Japanese retailer.

We just bought this shirt there this morning on the label.

This actually refers to Xinjiang cotton, so they're at the other end of the scale in terms of what's going on.

But look, it's very serious, this kind of effort to use its economic clout.

This kind of retail nationalism is a very familiar tactic employed by China, employed by the party employed by its government and its serious Just ask the South Koreans.

They're chain store lot suffered very seriously, uh, in years gone by a diplomatic spat.

Just ask the Philippines as well the government there.

It's fruit exports suffered seriously here.

That was all about a diplomatic spat between its government Robin branch reporting there.

Now China's Foreign Ministry has accused foreign companies of malicious attacks on China based on rumors and lies and harmed China's interests.

About the situation in Xinjiang is the Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

The first Xinjiang cotton ranks among the best in the world, the losses on the companies that choose not to use it.