Bulgari Faces China Boycott

Bulgari, the LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned jewelry label, has come under fire for listing Taiwan separately from China on its official website.

Chinese netizens,  quickly called for a boycott of Bulgari’s collaboration online.

In a statement Bulgari apologized for the blunder and reinstated its “One China” stance.

“Bulgari respects China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as always, with unwavering commitment,” the company said in the statement.

“We deeply regret the occurrence of technical errors in the store addresses and map markings on our official websites due to oversight in management. Upon discovering these technical issues immediate corrections have been made. We sincerely apologize for the mistakes. We express our sincere gratitude for the vigilance of netizens and are currently working with third-party international service providers to ensure accurate representation of countries and regions on our official websites,” the statement continued.

Bulgari also issued a timely apology on Weibo, which quickly topped the Weibo trending chart by Tuesday evening, receiving more than 300 million clicks at the time of publishing.

Following the apology, People’s Daily, the official Communist Party paper, shared a post on Weibo that said the apology was insincere and pressured Bulgari to issue a global apology. The post received 100,000-plus likes and also began trending on Weibo, receiving more than 140 million clicks within an hour.

The fallout came a day after Bulgari revealed a digital collaboration with Honor of Kings, one of China’s biggest video games. Bulgari designed in-game digital jewelry skin for Mi Yue, a character in the game. It is the company’s first in-game digital collaboration.