At least three Chinese celebrities on Saturday dropped German fashion house Hugo Boss, the latest foreign brand caught in a concerted boycott by Chinese consumers over Western accusations of forced labour in Xinjiang.
People walk past a store of German fashion house Hugo Boss in Beijing, China, March 27, 2021. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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BEIJING: At least three Chinese celebrities on Saturday dropped German fashion house Hugo Boss, the latest foreign brand caught in a concerted boycott by Chinese consumers over Western accusations of forced labour in Xinjiang.
Among the celebrities who ended their pacts with Hugo Boss was actor-singer Li Yifeng, who said in a statement through his agent on the Twitter-like microblog Weibo that he would only cooperate with brands that specifically support and procure cotton from the farwestern Chinese region.
Activists and U.N. rights experts have accused China of using mass detainment, torture, forced labour and sterilisations on Uighurs in Xinjiang. China denies these claims and says its actions in the region are necessary to counter extremism.
Hugo Boss, in a post on its Weibo account on Thursday, said it would "continue to purchase and support Xinjiang cotton." But it said on Friday that it was not an authorised post, and had been deleted accordingly.
In an email to Reuters on Friday, company spokeswoman Carolin Westermann said an undated English-language statement on its website stating that "so far, HUGO BOSS has not procured any goods originating in the Xinjiang region from direct suppliers" was its official position.
On Saturday, the brand's Weibo account issued a new statement saying it cherished all longstanding relationships with partners in China.
Hugo Boss China did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
Chinese internet users have accused Hugo Boss for backtracking on its position, saying the brand was being "two faced", with some vowing to boycott the brand for good.
"A two-faced person is the most disgusting. I'll boycott you forever," said a Weibo user.
The United States on Friday condemned what it called a "state-led" social media campaign in China against U.S. and other international companies for deciding not to use cotton from China's Xinjiang region over forced labour concerns.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
New Balance, Under Armour, Tommy Hilfiger and Converse, owned by Nike, are among companies that have come under fire in China for statements that they would not use cotton produced in the far-western Chinese region due to suspected forced labour.
The United States and other Western countries have imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which the United States has said have amounted to genocide.
"Several companies are starting to cave in to China's threats by removing their forced labour policies from their websites, and even going as far as promoting "Xinjiang
Cotton" on their websites, which reports show is tainted with Uighur forced labour," the World Uyghur Congress said in a statement.
"This is the ultimate moral test for these companies: opt for respecting human rights or embolden the genocidal regime of the Chinese Commmunist Party," said the largest group representing exiled ethnic Uighurs.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Michael Perry)
ISMAILIA, EGYPT (BLOOMBERG) - With every passing day, it is getting more likely that thousands of 40-foot (12m) boxes on board the ship blocking the Suez Canal may have to be hauled off.
The Ever Given, a 400m-long container ship with almost US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion) of cargo on board, jammed itself fast into the banks of the waterway on Tuesday (March 23), and estimates for it to be freed have now risen to over a week.
Tug boats have so far failed to shift the behemoth and some of the smartest minds in the salvage world are hoping dredging will allow them to move the freighter. It might just take a while.
But time is a luxury the ships using the Suez Canal do not have.
The blockage is holding up something like 10 per cent of global trade and a swath of imports that are critical to Europe's supply chains and industry.
Scores of ships have already decided to go the long way around - passing the southern tip of Africa - also depriving Egypt of vital revenue. So there's pressure to get the ship floated and out of the way as soon as possible.
If the dredging isn't working, or if it's too slow, then one of the first things the ship's salvors will do to float the boat is to remove its fuel and ballast so that it sits higher in the water.
Precedents
Operations will begin this weekend to remove containers from the grounded ship, said Mr Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Boskalis Westminster, the parent company of the salvage team.
"We are awaiting the arrival of a crane with which we can lift containers from the ship," said Mr Berdowski on Dutch television Friday evening. "We will start taking containers from the ship anyway this weekend."
History shows that lightening the Ever Given might ultimately be what frees it.
Back in November 2004, another vessel, this time a Suezmax-class oil tanker named Tropic Brilliance, ran aground after mechanical problems in the canal, wedging itself across the conduit in a similar way to the Ever Given. The canal authorities were forced to close the canal.
In an almost carbon copy of events over the past three days, tugboats tried to use their immense pulling power to free the tanker, which was carrying 85,000 tonnes of fuel oil, but those efforts failed.
Ultimately, salvage experts brought another tanker alongside, the El Nabila, and transferred roughly 22,000 tonnes of cargo.
On the third day of the grounding, and lighter after the transfer, tugboats were able to free the Tropic Brilliance and reopen the canal. The grounding triggered what, until then, was one of the longest closures of the waterway in years.
But lightening the Ever Given would be a completely different matter.
The boxship is carrying thousands of containers. If salvage experts need to move the same proportion of cargo as they did to free the Tropic Brilliance, it would entail physically removing, one by one, about a quarter of the boxes, an operation that would take days.
Two options
The two main options for this lightening process would either be huge cranes that sit atop barges, or powerful helicopters that could take off the boxes - each one potentially holding up to 22 tons of cargo.
Neither is an easy solution. Heavy-lift helicopters are hugely expensive and deciding the issue of who pays for them would need resolving too.
The crane option is not straightforward either. There are relatively few barge cranes big enough to lift boxes from such tall ships, and again, it is arduous.
"It just takes a lot of time and energy," said Mr Joseph Farrell III, director of business development at Resolve Marine, a company that offers salvage services, who declined to comment about Ever Given specifically.
"It can be quite dangerous too because you've got to get people to climb up on the containers and actually rig each container and lift them off."
There's precedent for just carrying on with the digging.
In 2016, a similarly large container ship became stuck in Germany's Elbe river. What followed was a week of intense dredging around the vessel by Smit - the company employed to dislodge the Ever Given. That operation succeeded after about a week.
But if helicopters were eventually to become necessary, then that would be hugely expensive. They cost an upfront fee and an hourly rate that can get up to US$20,000, according to Mr Farrell.
The lifting can be performed only by a special type of aircraft called sky-crane helicopters that are able to haul loads of 25,000 pounds (about 12.5 tons), according to Mr Nick Sloane, the salvage master responsible for refloating the Costa Concordia, which capsized off Italy in 2012.
Finding the right helicopters is a task in itself, said Mr Keith Saylor, director of commercial operations at Aurora, Oregon-based Columbia Helicopters, a company that provides commercial heavy-lift helicopters.
Many, like the Chinooks that are part of his fleet, are owned by governments or the military, who seldom participate in salvage missions.
The United States has offered to help the Suez Canal Authority, although it is not clear what that assistance might extend to.
Operations will begin this weekend to remove containers from the grounded ship. PHOTO: REUTERS
A few suitable helicopters are privately owned and most of those are in the US, almost 7,000 miles (11,265km) away, Mr Saylor said.
"If you can't find one near the Suez canal you'd need to fly them over," he said by phone from Phoenix, Arizona.
Just the cost to transport the helicopter is estimated at US$1.7 million. Finding the right pilot to fly it isn't easy either. There are probably no more than 100 in the world who are trained for such a task, Mr Saylor said.
Each container could be removed at a 5-minute clip, according to Mr Saylor, so over a period of 12 hours, 144 containers could be removed. The Ever Given can carry about 20,000 steel boxes.
Erickson, a Portland, Oregon-based aviation company with experience dealing with situations similar to the one in Suez, knows what can happen when things do not go as planned.
A few years ago, the company sent helicopters to remove containers from a vessel that was stranded on a sandbank east of Australia. After three weeks of work, the ship would not budge and the vessel had to be cut up, said Mr Allen Wanamaker, senior director of aerial programmes.
Barges
The other option is so-called crane barges - specialist vessels that could be used to lift cargoes off.
But since the Ever Given is one of the largest ships of its kind in the world, it would need a particularly tall crane barge, of which there are few in the world, to do the job.
"It is concerning that they haven't gotten her out yet," said Mr Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence. "If there's news that the hull has been breached, or they need to evacuate the boxes to get her free, then it's a big-time problem."
WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday (Mar 26) condemned what it called a "state-led" social media campaign in China against US and other international companies for deciding not to use cotton from China's Xinjiang region over forced labour concerns.
State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter said the social media campaign and consumer boycotts had targeted American, European and Japanese businesses.
"We commend and stand with companies that adhere to UN laws and ensure that products we are consuming are not made with forced labour," she told a regular news briefing.
"We support and encourage businesses to respect human rights in line with the UN guiding principles on business and human rights and the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises," she added.
China rejects allegations of abuses in Xinjiang, which is one of the world leading producers of cotton, and describes the camps it has set up there as vocational training centers for Uighur Muslims that help combat religious extremism.
Earlier, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called on the international community to "oppose China's weaponizing of private companies' dependence on its markets to stifle free expression and inhibit ethical business practices."
A number of overseas retailers have faced a public backlash from Chinese consumers who have circulated statements from the brands on social media announcing they will cease sourcing from Xinjiang.
Chinese celebrity endorsers have abandoned several foreign retail labels, including six US brands such as Nike, as Western concerns over labour conditions in Xinjiang spark a patriotic backlash from consumers.
New Balance, Under Armour, Tommy Hilfiger and Converse, owned by Nike, are among companies that have come under fire in China for statements that they would not use cotton produced in the far-western Chinese region due to suspected forced labour.
The United States and other Western countries have imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which the United States has said have amounted to genocide.
In January, Washington announced an import ban on all cotton and tomato products from the region over allegations that they are made with forced labour from detained Uighur Muslims.
MOSCOW: Russia wants to strengthen military ties with Myanmar, its state media reported on Friday (Mar 26), after a meeting between top defence officials and a junta condemned by Western countries for killing hundreds of civilian protesters.
Russia's deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, met in the capital Naypyidaw on Friday with junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power in a Feb 1 coup that triggered weeks of nationwide protests and a lethal response by security forces.
Fomin said Myanmar was a reliable ally and strategic partner of Russia in Asia, state-run TASS said, during a visit that came a day ahead of a big parade to mark Myanmar's Armed Forces Day, the military's most prestigious event.
In a video shown on the Russian Defence Ministry's Zvezda TV, Fomin is seen shaking hands and receiving a medal and a ceremonial sword from Min Aung Hlaing in a meeting room full of military officers in green uniforms.
"You, distinguished Senior General, took part in our parade last year, our parade commemorating the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War," TASS quoted Fomin as telling the junta leader, referring to World War Two.
"And this visit of ours - it's a response to yours."
WESTERN OUTRAGE
The visit is the firmest sign yet of Russia's support for the new military rulers in Myanmar, amid outrage in the West and deep concern among its Asian neighbours, some of which have condemned the violence against civilians and urged the restoration of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government.
The United States, Britain, Australia and the European Union have imposed sanctions on the ruling military council and the army's vast network of businesses.
Defence ties between Russia and Myanmar have grown in recent years with Moscow providing army training and university scholarships, as well as selling arms to a military blacklisted by several Western countries for alleged atrocities against civilians.
Russia is the source of at least 16 per cent of weaponry procured by Myanmar from 2014 to 2019, according to a 2020 study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Yadanar Maung, a representative for campaign group Justice for Myanmar, said Russia was legitimising the junta and called for the international community to impose a global arms embargo.
"Russia is complicit in the military's campaign of terror against the people," Yadanar Maung said.
"We are appalled that Russian officials are travelling to Myanmar to legitimise the illegal military junta."
BANGKOK: Thailand on Friday (Mar 26) announced plans for an experimental quarantine-free model in ultra-popular beach destination Phuket, as the kingdom attempts to resuscitate its pandemic-battered economy.
Thailand has imposed massive restrictions visitor arrivals in order to stem the spread of COVID-19, but discouraging tourism has led to its economy recording the worst performance since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
The impact has reverberated across the country's services sectors - bruising entertainment, retail, hotels and restaurants.
Thailand's tourism tsar announced Friday that Phuket - renowned for its sandy beaches and sapphire waters - will be used as a test.
Tourists who have been vaccinated will be allowed to travel there without mandatory hotel quarantine.
Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said the "Phuket sandbox model" would begin some time from July onwards.
Foreign visitors will be required to have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, a certificate signifying negative test results, and to download a mobile tracking application.
Yuthasak also confirmed that six tourism-reliant cities will have slashed quarantine times for vaccinated travellers beginning next month - including beach resorts Krabi, Ko Samui and Pattaya.
Arrivals will undergo a seven-day quarantine period and will be permitted in areas around their hotels - a marked difference for current visitors who are required to stay confined to their rooms for two weeks.
The plans still require final approval by the government.
About 40 million tourists were expected to arrive in 2020, but only 6.7 million managed to enter the kingdom, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
Thailand's tough approach has kept the coronavirus largely in check - the kingdom has registered about 28,500 cases in a population of 70 million.
BANGKOK (BLOOMBERG) - Thailand will waive quarantine requirements for vaccinated visitors arriving on the resort island of Phuket from July 1, the first key reopening for the tourism-reliant nation.
On Friday (March 26), an economic panel chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha approved the proposal by Phuket's private sector and business groups to inoculate at least 70 per cent of the island's residents to prepare for the reopening for vaccinated tourists, according to Tourism Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn.
The government plans to test the reopening plan in Phuket before expanding to other key tourist hot spots, like another resort island, Koh Samui, to help restart the tourism industry battered by a year without its millions of tourists who contributed to one-fifth of the economy before the pandemic.
The approval means that Phuket will reopen three months earlier than the rest of the country, which is expected to reopen for those who are fully vaccinated only in October.
Phuket residents will also be prioritised in the vaccine roll-out, with more than 930,000 doses expected to be administered before the reopening, Mr Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, president of the island's tourist association said separately earlier this week.
An early reopening could add more than 30 billion baht (S$1.3 billion) to the economy, but a successful reopening also hinges on the international vaccine passport agreement and negotiations with other countries to allow free travel, Mr Bhummikitti said.
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"There are people who are fully vaccinated and ready to travel. But they would only choose destinations that have vaccinated its residents and don’t require quarantine," said Mr Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, who expects at least 100,000 visitors to Phuket in the third quarter.
Despite a flare-up in infections earlier this year, Thailand has largely contained the pandemic, with just 92 deaths and 28,577 cases over the course of the pandemic.
That has spurred the government to shorten quarantine for visitors to 10 days from two weeks starting April 1, with a plan to further reduce it to a week for those with proof of vaccination travelling to Phuket, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai and three other destinations.
The government will continue to gradually relax control measures as it consider the health of the economy and people as equally important, Mr Prayuth said Thursday.
Thailand’s central bank trimmed its growth forecast for this year to 3 per cent while lowering its estimate for tourist arrivals to 3 million from December’s estimate of 5.5 million.
The pandemic has devastated the nation’s tourism industry, which provided more than US$60 billion in revenue from about 40 million foreign visitors in 2019.
