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Nike is among the many companies that have pulled out of Russia after its assault on Ukraine. But the sports apparel giant has not taken similar steps in China. In fact, Nike has tried to strengthen its ties to China’s genocidal government in recent years.
Nike announced Thursday that it would be pulling out of Russia after the company temporarily closed its doors in March. That is Nike’s prerogative. But since it has chosen to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, it is inviting the question of why it hasn’t done the same to China. In recent years, China has suppressed democracy in Hong Kong, repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan, and carried out a genocide against its ethnic Uyghur minority, reportedly complete with forced sterilizations, slave labor, forced abortions, and torture.
Most recently, questions have once again been raised about the Chinese Communist Party harvesting organs from Uyghur prisoners as well as prisoners from other oppressed groups, including Tibetans and the Falun Gong. China’s human rights abuses are well-documented, but Nike has continued to remain open there.
Nike isn’t simply ignoring China’s track record. The company has reaffirmed its love of China, with CEO John Donahoe saying last year that Nike is “a brand of China and for China.” What really matters is that “consumers feel a strong, deep connection to the Nike, Jordan and Converse brands in China.”
Nike was among the companies lobbying against a bill that would ban goods imported from China’s Xinjiang region that are made with forced labor. The Washington Post reported in 2020 that China was forcing Uyghurs to work in a shoe factory that served as a supplier for Nike for more than 30 years.
Like Russia, China is an expansionist regime. The CCP is the worst human rights abuser in the world, systemically carrying out wide-scale human rights atrocities. Nike is willing to close its 100 or so stores in Russia, but there is too much money to be made in China to do the same. In March, Yahoo Finance reported that “Nike’s fourth-quarter revenue for Greater China was $2.16 billion.”
If Nike is looking for credit or praise for its stance on Russia, it doesn’t deserve it. As with so much of corporate America, Nike’s pro-China hypocrisy renders its other political statements, both foreign and domestic, meaningless. The notion that its business decisions are steeped in morality and a concern for human rights is just a pretense.
