Editor's note: Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law，Senior Fellow of the Charhar Institute, former Defense Attache in South Asian countries. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of China Economic Net.

by Cheng Xizhong

Recently, the Swedish fast-fashion giant H&M’s slander of cotton in Xinjiang, China has become a global sensation. Brands such as Nike, IKEA, Zara, Decathlon, Uniqlo, NB and ASICs have also participated.

Both China and Pakistan are big producers of quality cotton in the world. China produces roughly 22% of the world's cotton, of which 87.3% comes from Xinjiang, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

In 2019, 122 million bales of cotton were produced in the world, of which 5.4% was produced in Pakistan, ranking fifth in the world.

The quality of cotton produced in the United States is relatively poor, so the United States' crackdown on Xinjiang cotton is certainly conducive to the export of American cotton, because the main market of American cotton is not in the United States, but the foreign one.

At the same time, both China and Pakistan are big textile producers, and the cotton they produce is not enough for their domestic consumption. Due to the demand of the textile industry, China imports some 2 million tons of cotton each year and Pakistan imports more than 4 million bales of cotton each year.

So, China and Pakistan can afford not to export cotton. One of the important reasons why brands such as H&M and Nike are so famous is that they use quality cotton produced by China and Pakistan. If China and Pakistan do not supply quality cotton to brands such as H&M and Nike, they will not be able to survive.

I have noticed that at this critical moment, Pakistan's mainstream media have published many articles by cotton industry leaders, experts and scholars to uphold justice, expose Western conspiracies and give firm support to China.

The accusation of "forced labor" in China's Xinjiang and the boycott against Xinjiang's cotton by Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) are groundless and politically motivated, and the targeted propaganda of BCI has deliberately ignored the ground facts and realities, said Jassu Mal, Chairman of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, who has been to Xinjiang several times and witnessed the advancement and modernization of the region's cotton industry.

Relevant experts in Pakistan pointed out that the action of "boycotting China's Xinjiang cotton" initiated by BCI is driven by economic interests and is to seize the pricing power and the standard formulation power of the global cotton supply chain.

Pakistan is a close partner of Xinjiang. With the continuous deepening of agricultural cooperation between China and Pakistan, China actively shares with Pakistan the advanced cotton breeding technique and cotton seed production technology, so as to help Pakistan boost its modern cotton production.

Those brands that follow BCI's action and boycott Xinjiang cotton are being punished by the market.

On March 31, H&M issued a statement, saying that China is an important market and it will strive to get back the trust of Chinese consumers. However, H&M has not got the understanding of Chinese consumers yet.

It can be predicted that more foreign companies and brands, including BCI, will recognize their mistakes, and China will become the ultimate winner in this matter.

Finally, I would like to say that China and Pakistan cooperate closely in cotton planting and textile production and support each other on relevant international and regional issues, which fully reflect the community of shared destiny of the two countries.