On March 24, Anta’s official Weibo @ANTA Sports issued a statement saying that it has noticed the recent statement issued by BCI and is seriously concerned about this matter. We Relevant procedures are being initiated to exit the organization. The statement also stated that Anta has always purchased and used cotton produced in China’s cotton producing areas, including Xinjiang cotton, and will continue to purchase and use Chinese cotton in the future.
What exactly is BCI?
Picture source: Weibo@ANTA体育
What exactly is BCI? In fact, there are many well-known global brands among the members of this organization. These brands have also issued similar statements to H&M, making groundless accusations against China on Xinjiang-related issues and suppressing Xinjiang cotton farmers and the cotton industry.
BCI official website page
” The largest cotton sustainable development non-profit organization”
BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) stands for “Better Cotton Development Association” and prides itself on being the world’s largest cotton Sustainability non-profit organization. It has formulated relevant standards and requires members to use cotton that they believe meets the standards in order to use the BCI logo. In addition to the so-called “environmental protection standards”, BCI advocates the so-called “promotion of decent work”. The organization fabricated lies about the existence of “forced labor” in Xinjiang cotton production out of thin air to block Xinjiang cotton.
Data as of the end of 2019 show that “Better Cotton” certified by BCI accounts for 1/5 of the world’s cotton production.
Different from production quality certification systems such as QS/ISO, although BCI emphasizes that only cotton that has passed its certification can be called better cotton, this good standard Everything in it needs to be good, but it doesn’t need to be of good quality.
Let’s take a look at what are the so-called good standards: minimizing the harmful effects of crop protection measures, efficient water use and protection of water resources, and paying attention to soil health , protect natural habitats, care for and protect fiber quality, promote decent work, and operate effective management systems.
As long as they think you are a conscientious businessman who loves environmental protection and respects human rights, the Better Cotton organization will open its doors. You open your arms.
How can you make environmentalists in Europe feel your sincerity in doing your best for cotton environmental protection? Of course it depends on the euro.
BCI holds high the banner of environmental protection, and collects money from upstream cotton merchants, midstream textile mills, and downstream The entire retail industry chain is covered in one place.
So, why is BCI an NGO that does not control production capacity, does not master technology, and does not have access to the market? Can it become popular in the cotton industry?
The support behind USAID
Let’s start with the development history of BCI.
BCI was born out of the initiative of a roundtable meeting of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2005 and is located in Switzerland, where the headquarters of various international organizations are concentrated. In its early days, BCI resolutely held high the banner of environmental protection and sustainable development and received a lot of response.
But the foundation is a non-profit organization after all. If it wants to do big things, it needs the support of “financiers”. When BCI was at a loss, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) came on the scene.
USAID claims to be an independent agency that implements U.S. foreign policy and supports non-military projects. In fact, it is roughly equivalent to the FBI’s vest, funding the opposition, bribing officials, News that incites the public with rhythm is not uncommon. It is conceivable that the purpose of projects that can be “favoured” by USAID is naturally not as simple as supporting environmental protection.
After USAID assistance was in place, BCI’s publicity became more confident. Subsequently, British clothing retailer Marks & Spencer, American Levi’s jeans, Nike, Adidas, etc. followed suit and joined the BCI alliance.
With the blessing of these global companies that control large quantities of purchases and end consumers, BCI promotes environmental protection concepts It has been smoother and smoother, and the value of Better Cotton certification has been further improved.
Many consumers will feel that even if the quality of cotton with environmental protection bonus is not superior to others, it can at least be used.
However, to join BCI’s H&MTake the brand as an example, sometimes even the basic quality requirements cannot be met.
So what will happen if there is no BCI certification?
In fact, there is no significant impact. Even with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as one of the important funders of BCI, the United States is one of the three largest financial institutions in the world. Currently, only 6% of cotton production capacity in major cotton-producing countries has obtained BCI certification. On the contrary, 15% of cotton production capacity in Xinjiang, China has obtained BCI certification.
BCI claims that its purpose is to make global cotton planting and production more conducive to cotton farmers, more conducive to the planting environment, and more conducive to the future development of the industry. What is ridiculous is that what he has done for a period of time has clearly seriously damaged the interests of cotton farmers in Xinjiang and the development of the cotton industry.
In October 2020, BCI issued a press release and re-edited it in March 2021, which claimed that “forced labor” and Other “human rights violations,” which are inconsistent with the organization’s standards of conduct, must be dealt with immediately by revoking or denying the BCI license. Since March 2020, BCI has suspended the issuance of licenses in Xinjiang, so high-quality cotton in Xinjiang no longer obtains BCI licenses.
Screenshot of BCI official website press release
But it’s worth it It should be noted that on March 1, 2021, the WeChat public account “BCI Better Cotton” (the account owner is the Shanghai Representative Office of the Swiss Better Cotton Development Association) issued another important statement on Xinjiang issues.
It stated that the BCI Shanghai Representative Office has recently received letters of inquiry from some previous Xinjiang implementation partners, and hereby solemnly declares that the BCI China project team strictly abides by the BCI In accordance with the audit principles, the second-party credibility audits and third-party verifications carried out on Xinjiang project sites since 2012 have never found a single incident related to forced labor.
Screenshot source: WeChat public account “BCI Better Cotton”
Whether this represents the official intention of BCI headquarters, there is no more clear information in the statement or later. But this allows us to see a scene of extremely magical reality. On one side, European and American politicians are smearing Xinjiang for no reason, but BCI’s China representative office is eager to clear Xinjiang’s name.
BCI talks about doctrines but is all about business in its heart.
Picture | Some of BCI’s partner brands and retailers
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