Re:Xinjiang cotton: Western clothes brands vanish as backlas...
by mytailorisrich on Saturday March 27, 2021 @07:49AM
(#26601639)
> The idea that intelligence agencies and governments would coordinate such a campaign is absurd.
I don't think it is absurd. FUD seeds only need to be planted and social media and news outlets will be more than happy to make this viral by themselves. Once public opinion is perceiving things in a certain way the situation becomes very difficult for companies, which obviously do not want their sales or image hurt and the facts become irrelevant. This is the subtlety our Western system where influence and fabrication of narrative still exist but are much more subtle than the blunt tools used in countries like China.
It is quite likely in my opinion that the Xinjiang cotton 'issue' is at the very least massively overblown. This is a modern, mechanised industry and China is not exactly short of labour so the idea that Chinese cotton is produced by forced labour seems far-fetched and it is 'interesting' that this somehow suddenly becomes such a global issue.
Shooting down Chinese cotton would not only hurt China and perhaps foster unrest in Xinjiang (people would lose their jobs), which can be useful to the West, but would also serve the economic interests of China's adversaries. After all it so happens that the top 3 cotton producers are India, China, and the USA, in that order. So this is very possibly a geopolitical powerplay.
I don't think it is absurd. FUD seeds only need to be planted and social media and news outlets will be more than happy to make this viral by themselves. Once public opinion is perceiving things in a certain way the situation becomes very difficult for companies, which obviously do not want their sales or image hurt and the facts become irrelevant. This is the subtlety our Western system where influence and fabrication of narrative still exist but are much more subtle than the blunt tools used in countries like China.
It is quite likely in my opinion that the Xinjiang cotton 'issue' is at the very least massively overblown. This is a modern, mechanised industry and China is not exactly short of labour so the idea that Chinese cotton is produced by forced labour seems far-fetched and it is 'interesting' that this somehow suddenly becomes such a global issue.
Shooting down Chinese cotton would not only hurt China and perhaps foster unrest in Xinjiang (people would lose their jobs), which can be useful to the West, but would also serve the economic interests of China's adversaries. After all it so happens that the top 3 cotton producers are India, China, and the USA, in that order. So this is very possibly a geopolitical powerplay.