Your Apple phone, Adidas shoes and Sony TV may have been made in China by forced Uighur labor

[TomSea]

Your Apple phone, Adidas shoes and Sony TV may have been made in China by forced Uighur labor
By Alice Su  China Correspondent

The online ad boasted of freshly trained ethnic minority teenagers as if they were commodities for sale. Factories could book workers online at a “minimum order of 100" people, the ad said, and have them delivered to their doorsteps within 15 days.

The ad was included in a report released this week by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, or ASPI, which advises the Australian government, alleging that Muslim-minority Uighurs have been sent from “reeducation” camps in China’s Xinjiang province to factories across China, where they are forced to make consumer goods for the world.

The report used government documents, Chinese news media and independent reporting in collaboration with the Washington Post to track transfers of at least 80,000 Uighurs from Xinjiang to Chinese factories that supply 83 global brands including Nike, Apple, Dell, Adidas, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen.

Read more at: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-04/apple-phone-nike-shoes-sony-tv-china-uighur-forced-labor

[mountaineer]

Apple’s longtime supplier accused of using forced labor in China
New documents show Lens Technology, which makes iPhone glass and is owned by China’s richest woman, received Uighur Muslim laborers transferred from Xinjiang.
By Reed Albergotti
Dec. 29, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. EST

One of the oldest and most well-known iPhone suppliers has been accused of using forced Muslim labor in its factories, according to documents uncovered by a human rights group, adding new scrutiny to Apple’s human rights record in China.

The documents, discovered by the Tech Transparency Project and shared exclusively with The Washington Post, detail how thousands of Uighur workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang were sent to work for Lens Technology. Lens also supplies Amazon and Tesla, according to its annual report.

Apple is lobbying against a bill aimed at stopping forced labor in China

Lens Technology is one of at least five companies connected to Apple’s supply chain that have now been linked to alleged forced labor from the Xinjiang region, according to human rights groups.  ...

Washington Post

[mountaineer]

As noted above, Apple has lobbied Congress against a bill to stop Chinese forced labor. I previously posted a thread about that:

Nike and Coca-Cola Lobby Against Xinjiang Forced Labor Bill
Business groups and major companies like Apple have been pressing Congress to alter legislation cracking down on imports of goods made with forced labor from persecuted Muslim minorities in China.
By Ana Swanson
    Nov. 29, 2020
New York Times

    WASHINGTON — Nike and Coca-Cola are among the major companies and business groups lobbying Congress to weaken a bill that would ban imported goods made with forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region, according to congressional staff members and other people familiar with the matter, as well as lobbying records that show vast spending on the legislation.

    The bill, which would prohibit broad categories of certain goods made by persecuted Muslim minorities in an effort to crack down on human rights abuses, has gained bipartisan support, passing the House in September by a margin of 406 to 3. Congressional aides say it has the backing to pass the Senate, and could be signed into law by either the Trump administration or the incoming Biden administration.

    But the legislation, called the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, has become the target of multinational companies including Apple whose supply chains touch the far western Xinjiang region, as well as of business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Lobbyists have fought to water down some of its provisions, arguing that while they strongly condemn forced labor and current atrocities in Xinjiang, the act’s ambitious requirements could wreak havoc on supply chains that are deeply embedded in China. ...

HERE