ITALIAN luxury brand Versace yesterday apologized after its Chinese brand spokesperson Yang Mi announced she was ending cooperation with the company over a controversial T-shirt that mislabeled China’s Hong Kong and Macao SARs as countries. “Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity are sacred, lawful, and brook no division,” Yang’s office announced on Sina Weibo yesterday. The announcement said Yang had sent a notification to Versace to cancel the contract with the brand and had stopped all cooperation with it. The announcement came a few hours after a Chinese netizen posted online photos of a Versace T-shirt featuring lists of “city - COUNTRY” on the back, including “Hong Kong - HONG KONG” and “Macau - MACAO.” “Versace suspected of supporting Hong Kong and Macao secession” became a trending hashtag on Sina Weibo with more than 400 million views as of press time. Versace immediately apologized on Weibo, 12 minutes after Yang’s announcement. “Our mistaken design resulted in some cities not coming with their correct country. The T-shirt had been pulled and destroyed July 24 …We deeply apologize …” said Versace. “Versace reiterates that we love China, and resolutely respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Versace. Chinese netizens hailed Yang’s quick reaction and patriotic decision but did not buy Versace’s apology. “Every Chinese holds a zero-tolerance attitude toward any speech and actions attempting to split China” and “Do not try in vain to use ‘mistaken design’ as an excuse to challenge China’s sovereignty” were views widely echoed by netizens. According to Versace’s official website, U.S. fashion-brand company Michael Kors purchased the brand in 2018 and is now its holding company. However, Kors had not commented on the incident as of press time, which caused discontent on Chinese social media. (Global Times) |