Commentary The H&M incident is an excellent example in dissecting China’s internal and foreign affairs. Here I will interpret the performance of Chinese social manipulation in the H&M incident and its fatal flaws. Let me talk about what the H&M incident is. On March 24, the Communist Youth League, an affiliate of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), took the lead in its official Weibo account to criticize H&M’s statement on suspending Xinjiang cotton last year, saying: “Spreading rumors to boycott Xinjiang cotton while trying to make money in China? Wishful thinking!” This remark drew one-sided support from more than 400,000 Chinese netizens with comments advocating boycotting H&M, such as “Get out” and “Don’t expect to get fed by the Chinese and smash the Chinese wok at the same time.” Many state media, such as CCTV and People’s Daily also joined the fight. The incident escalated quickly. Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com removed …