Beijing (AFP)

China, increasingly offensive in the face of accusations of violating the rights of its Uyghur minority, has taken retaliatory measures against Swedish ready-to-wear giant H&M, which decided last year to stop trading. use cotton from Xinjiang, a populated province of Uyghurs.

H&M products disappeared from the Taobao platform, owned by giant Alibaba, on Wednesday, as two popular players cut ties with the Swedish group and Chinese state media criticized the group.

State media spoke of "lies" and "hidden intentions", with CCTV accusing H&M of "eating Chinese rice while breaking the bowl" and seeking to "destroy the development of businesses and workers. Chinese".

Chinese actress and singer Victoria Song, who collaborated with H&M on a collection last year, released a statement saying she was severing ties with the group and "the country's interests come first."

The clothing group Hennes et Mauritz (H&M) announced last year that it would no longer use cotton from Xinjiang, a Chinese province populated by Uyghurs, a Muslim minority repressed and exploited by Beijing according to human rights defenders , which the Communist regime denies.

This decision came after a report by the NGO Australian Strategic Policy Institute accusing the group of having obtained supplies "potentially directly or indirectly", between 2017 and 2019, from structures using Uyghur labor from " re-education camps ".

H&M China said in a statement Wednesday that it did not endorse "any political position" and remained committed to China for the long term.

The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada imposed sanctions on past and current leaders in Xinjiang on Monday.

According to studies by American and Australian institutes, at least one million Uyghurs have been interned in "camps" in Xinjiang and some subjected to "forced labor" and "sterilizations".

China categorically denies the last two accusations and claims that the "camps" are "vocational training centers" intended to distance the population from religious extremism and separatism, after a series of attacks attributed to Uyghurs.

© 2021 AFP