Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying. Photo: VCG

 "The rights and wrongs of the case are very clear: Chinese people and consumers have the right to make their own choices," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular media briefing on Tuesday, when asked whether Chinese netizens' boycott of enterprises like H&M have been promoted by the Chinese government.

For all 1.4 billion people in China, each individual has their own mind and thoughts, and every person has the right to express their own thoughts and feelings online, Hua said.

"You can't just assume that the Chinese government is behind it just because you see some remarks on the internet that you don't like or don't want to hear. This is a serious misunderstanding and bias against China," Hua said.

Public outrage erupted in China after H&M said it was prohibiting any type of "forced labor" in its supply chain in Xinjiang — a rumor that has been maliciously fabricated and fanned by Western anti-China forces, citing the nongovernmental organization Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) as a major reason behind its cutoff of raw material procurement from the region.

Chinese netizens then began to boycott H&M, Nike and other traditionally-popular Western apparel brands because of their provocative statements on Xinjiang-related issues and bans on cotton from Xinjiang. Many celebrities, companies, associates and media also voiced their support for the Xinjiang cotton.

"I support Xinjiang cotton" quickly became a popular online campaign on Chinese social media platforms from March 25, showing how Chinese companies, media and ordinary people respond to the constant smear campaigns launched by some Western countries who urged multinational companies to reject Xinjiang cotton for so-called forced labor reasons. 

The spokespersons of the White House and US Department of State made comments on Xinjiang cotton on Friday, accusing the Chinese government of leading a "state-led" social media campaign against foreign companies "for their decision to avoid inputs using Xinjiang cotton because of forced labor."

However, the Chinese foreign ministry on Monday shrugged off such accusations, saying the Chinese people were actually infuriated at some foreign firms' decision to reject Xinjiang cotton based on nothing but lies.