Fox News host Steve Hilton lambasted Nike Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe for his recent remarks that “Nike is a brand that is of China and for China,” noting that the corporation is openly admitting to being in favor of genocide, slavery, and communist police states.
“Now, there’s a lot going on, but you should know about this. Because you may have Nike shoes or other products in your home and you may want to reconsider giving this company your money,” Hilton said. “‘Nike is a brand of China and for China,’ said its CEO John Donahoe this week.”
“So now we can say, because the CEO told us, that Nike is a brand of genocide and for genocide. Nike is a brand of slave labor and for slave labor, of torture and for torture. Nike is a brand of a police state and for a police state. Seventy years on from World War II, corporations that collaborated with the Nazi regime are now facing a reckoning. I don’t know if the reckoning for this disgusting, vile Nike CEO will take that long. It can’t come soon enough, as far as I’m concerned.”
Donahoe’s remarks came during a phone call with Wall Street analysts on earnings. The company showed major increases in China sales and has successfully lobbied against legislation aiming to impose restrictions on imports from China’s Xinjiang region, where more than 1 million Uyghur Muslims and other minorities are considered to be held in forced labor camps. More than 80 percent of Chinese cotton is sourced from the Xinjiang region.
“And the biggest asset we have in China is the consumer equity,” Donahoe also said. “Consumers feel its strong deep connection to the Nike, Jordan, and Converse brands in China, and it’s real. I saw that in my first week there, can’t wait to get back there, and it’s strong. And that’s brought to life on streets all over China through the over 7,000 mono-brand stores we have in China. So, we have a strong consumer franchise in China, and they feel very connected to our brand.”
Nike released a statement in March claiming it “does not source products” from Xinjiang after the BBC published a lengthy report on forced labor.
