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Bulgari Apologizes to China for Listing Taiwan as a Country After Online Backlash

A man smokes as he walks by the Bulgari store at a high-end shopping mall in Beijing, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (AP)
A man smokes as he walks by the Bulgari store at a high-end shopping mall in Beijing, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (AP)
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Bulgari Apologizes to China for Listing Taiwan as a Country After Online Backlash

A man smokes as he walks by the Bulgari store at a high-end shopping mall in Beijing, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (AP)
A man smokes as he walks by the Bulgari store at a high-end shopping mall in Beijing, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (AP)

Bulgari has become the latest international brand to apologize to China after listing Taiwan as a country on its website.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, and both the government and Chinese internet users have a history of scolding or boycotting international brands that have referred to Taiwan as a separate country. Late Tuesday, Bulgari posted an apology on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, saying it “steadfastly and always” respected China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“Our brand has immediately corrected the mistakenly marked store addresses and map indications on the overseas official website, which resulted from management negligence,” the Italian luxury brand said in a statement. “We deeply apologize for the mistake.”

Brands also have come under fire for offending Beijing’s other geopolitical sensibilities, including its territorial claims in the South China Sea and the status of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader.

The Bulgari incident was widely discussed on Chinese social media, with some users demanding that the brand distribute its apology on its international social media accounts as well.

“Did you post it on the overseas Internet?” one comment with more than 40,000 likes read. “Don’t be a two-faced person who only wants Chinese people to see (the apology).”

A Weibo topic asking users if they accepted Bulgari’s apology had been viewed more than 12 million times by Wednesday afternoon.

Several Chinese state-run publications joined in the demand that Bulgari apologize on its international platforms as well.

“Bulgari made a mistake on its overseas official website but only issued an apology on its mainland China account,” read a commentary by China Daily. “Such an apology may hardly convince Chinese consumers.”

Brands including Valentino, Calvin Klein, Coach, Zara and Delta Airlines have apologized in recent years for listing Taiwan as a country or region separate from China on their websites.

Mercedes-Benz in 2018 apologized for quoting the Dalai Lama on Instagram, while Gap the same year apologized for selling a T-shirt with a map of China that omitted Taiwan and the South China Sea.

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Fashion

Uniqlo’s Chief Says Fast Fashion Must Change with the Times

A woman walks past jumpers for sale at the latest flagship store to open by Fast Retailing clothing brand Uniqlo, in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
A woman walks past jumpers for sale at the latest flagship store to open by Fast Retailing clothing brand Uniqlo, in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
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Uniqlo’s Chief Says Fast Fashion Must Change with the Times

A woman walks past jumpers for sale at the latest flagship store to open by Fast Retailing clothing brand Uniqlo, in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
A woman walks past jumpers for sale at the latest flagship store to open by Fast Retailing clothing brand Uniqlo, in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo on November 14, 2024. (AFP)

Forty years after its founding, Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo has more than 2,500 stores worldwide. Sales at its parent company, Fast Retailing Co., recently topped 3 trillion yen ($20 billion) annually for the first time.

The name Uniqlo comes from joining the words for “unique” and “clothing.” The chain’s basic concept is “LifeWear,” or everyday clothing. Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing Co. Chief Executive Tadashi Yanai, ranked by Forbes as Japan’s richest man and estimated to be worth $48 billion, spoke recently to The Associated Press at the company’s Tokyo headquarters. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What were the biggest challenges over the past 40 years?

A: Actually 40 years, upon reflection, went by so fast they feel more like three years. You know what they say in Japan: Time flies like an arrow. I started a regional business, then expanded nationwide.

When we became No. 2 or No. 3 in Japan’s casual wear, and being No. 1 was right within reach, we became a listed company in 1994. That was followed by our fleece boom, which doubled our revenue in one year to 400 billion yen ($2.6 billion).

I’d been thinking about going global when our revenue reached 300 billion yen ($2 billion) so we opened 50 stores in Great Britain, hoping to be a winner there just like we had conquered Japan.

Instead, we got totally knocked out.

We opened 21 outlets in a year and a half, but had to close 16 of them, leaving just five. We didn’t succeed as we had hoped. This is not an easy job. It’s very tough.

But these days, our sales are strongest in London, and also Paris. We made progress gradually.

Q: What are some of the sustainability and other key issues you have faced over the years?

A: We make clothes that last a long time. Not just clothes that last for one season.

The cashmere sweater I’m wearing today is $99. But please don’t say “cheap.” Please call it “reasonable.” We sell quality products at reasonable prices.

We’ve done various sustainability efforts, and we talk only about what we have really achieved.

Sustainability is crucial to our operations. And we’ve done just about everything — recycling, employing the disabled, support for refugees.

The prices may be cheaper at Wal-Mart, but our products offer real quality for the price. We take the greatest care and time, and involve a lot of people. Our rivals are more careless.

Q: What is behind Uniqlo’s success and what resonated with global buyers?

A: When we say Uniqlo is “made for all,” one might imagine products for the masses, like what’s at a Wal-Mart or a Target.

But what we mean is a high-quality product that appeals to all people, including the extremely rich, not only those with sophisticated taste and intelligence, but also people who don’t know that much about clothes, and the design is fine-tuned, the material fine quality, and sustainability concerns have been addressed.

We were first a retailer, then a manufacturer-cum-retailer. Now we are a digital consumer retailer. That is why we are successful. If we had stayed the same, then we can’t hope to succeed.

Being a digital consumer retail company means we utilize information at a high level to shape the way we do our work. We gain information about our customers, the workers at the store, the market, all that information.

Changing daily is the only way we can hope for stable growth. The world is changing every day.

Q: Are you confident you can keep it up another 40 years?

A: Of course. We’ve been preparing to reach 3 trillion yen ($20 billion) revenue all these years. And we are finally starting to be known. But we still have a long way to go.

We are just getting started, and we are going to keep growing. There is more potential for growth in Europe and the US, as well as China and India, given the 1.4 billion population in each country. Clothing is a necessity, so population size is key.