H&M. Photo: VCG

Chinese netizens don't buy the H&M reply regarding Xinjiang cotton, and some said the reply implies that the firm is not doing wrong.

As of 8 am on Thursday morning, more than 115,000 comments were made after the company's statement made late on Wednesday,  and one of the top comments is that "let me translate, the reply is that, I am not doing wrong."

Netizens said the answer has some sort of warning to Chinese customers that we have 350 suppliers here, please do not make this a lose-lose.

Such comments came after H&M China said in an announcement on Wednesday evening that the group has always upheld the principles of openness and transparency in the management of the global supply chain, ensuring that suppliers around the world comply with sustainability commitments such as the "OECD Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct," and does not represent any political position.

The announcement also said H&M Group purchases more sustainable cotton through a globally certified third party. The purpose is to support cotton farmers around the world to adopt more sustainable methods to grow cotton. H&M Group does not purchase cotton directly from any supplier.

Currently, we are cooperating with more than 350 manufacturers in China to provide Chinese and global consumers with apparel products that comply with the principles of sustainable development, the announcement said.

One netizen explained what the meaning of the statement is that, we are not wrong. Boycotting Xinjiang cotton is based on baseless business code, not based on Chinese laws and the actual situation in Xinjiang. Boycotting Xinjiang cotton is to support sustainable development, instead of Xinjiang cotton, and Chinese customers should think twice, if you want to boycott us, we have cooperation with more than 350 manufacturers, the loss will be yours.

Chinese netizens have called for the ouster of H&M from the Chinese market after they found the company had previously said it had prohibited sourcing products from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, citing so called forced labor concerns in the cotton-producing region amid the latest wave of Western attack at China.

H&M has faced a "social death" in China.

The search results of the taobao.com show that all "H&M" and "HM" searches have returned no results. Similar result is also found out on JD.com, another online shopping giant.

Mobile phone app stores of Xiaomi, Huawei and Vivo have removed H&M's app, and service apps such as Baidu map and dianping.com, the Chinese version of Yelp, blocked search results for their stores.