Overview
- Starbucks this week opened two stores in Urumqi, one at the Grand Bazaar and one at the city’s international airport, marking the company’s first outlets in Xinjiang.
- John Moolenaar, chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on China, publicly urged Starbucks to close the stores and called the decision morally bankrupt.
- Human-rights groups including the World Uyghur Congress condemned the openings, citing past United Nations findings and ongoing concerns about mass detention and forced labour in Xinjiang.
- China’s Foreign Ministry rejected U.S. criticisms as fabrications, and Starbucks China’s CEO said the company will continue investing in the region after finalising a June–April joint-venture arrangement that gave Boyu a majority stake.
- Observers noted the stores’ signage showed English and Chinese but no obvious Uyghur-language signs, a symbolic detail that critics say heightens concerns about cultural erasure and could deepen consumer and regulatory scrutiny abroad.