Yahoo Finance Burberry dropped from Chinese video game as Uighur row widens
Burberry has lost a popular video game deal just days after it was announced amid growing Chinese backlash to Western accusations of forced labour in Xinjiang.
The company’s tie-up with Tencent Games was announced at the end of last year to add its hallmark tartan design to characters in the Honour of Kings game.
The design has been dropped from the clothing worn by some of the characters, according to a post on the game’s official Weibo account. Burberry only revealed further details of the partnership at the start of this week. That announcement has since been removed from its website.
The move comes after China imposed sanctions on organisations and individuals in the UK over what it called “lies and disinformation” about the western Chinese region.
It follows UK sanctions for alleged forced Uighur labour. The UK government has accused China of human rights abuses including mass imprisonment in “re-education” camps and forced sterilisations. China has denied allegations of genocide and forced labour.
A Chinese actress, Zhou Dongyu, also terminated her contract with Burberry as a brand ambassador saying the firm had not “clearly and publicly stated its stance on cotton from Xinjiang”.
“This kind of decision is meaningful,” said Flavio Cereda, a retail analyst at Jefferies.
A wider boycott of Burberry’s clothes, bags and accessories would make a serious dent in sales and profits. Chinese consumers account for almost half of its sales. The shares fell by 30.5p, or 1.6pc, to £18.71.
H&M and Nike are also facing a backlash from Chinese consumers and ecommerce platforms over older concerns about Xinjiang.
Searches for H&M clothes this week turned up no results on Alibaba’s T-mall and JD.com, China’s two biggest online retailers.
This was after China’s Communist Youth League said H&M was “boycotting” cotton produced in Xinjiang, pointing to a company statement from the retailer that said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of forced labour.
The region is a hub of Chinese cotton production with much of it used to make clothing bought by western consumers.
Representatives for Burberry in the UK did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tencent declined to comment.
