One-China T-shirt row engulfs Coach and Disney, a day after Versace apology
- Luxury brand says it regrets listing Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan separately from China
- The brand’s ambassador in China, model Liu Wen, apologised and said she would end her collaboration with Coach
American luxury brand Coach has become the latest international label to fall foul of Chinese consumers over the one-China principle as Beijing cracks down once again on overseas companies that fail to toe the Communist Party line.
Coach issued a statement on Monday saying it “respects and supports China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” after it faced a backlash for a T-shirt design that lists Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan separately from China.
Images of the T-shirt, which is part of a Coach and Disney collection released in May 2018, circulated on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, on Monday morning.
The back of the T-shirt featured a list of cities, with their country names, such as “Tokyo, Japan” and “Milan, Italy”. Both Beijing and Shanghai were named as part of China, but Hong Kong and Macau were listed separately only as“Hong Kong” and “Macau”. Taipei was listed as “Taipei, Taiwan”.
China’s mainland online community criticised Coach and accused the label of supporting Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwanese independence. Online comments accused the brand of “disrespecting China’s national sovereignty” and demanded an apology.
Coach also came under fire for the store locator on its website which listed Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as three separate countries.