Clothing, electronics, vehicles and appliances that are household brands in New Zealand were exposed as using forced labour by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in its report, Uyghurs For Sale.
ASPI estimated that more than 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of their Xinjiang home region to factories across China between 2017 and 2019.
“Some companies were, I think, probably genuinely shocked and undertook investigations into their supply chains,” ASPI senior analyst Kelsey Munro told Stuff Circuit.
“Many ignored us. Others very quickly said, ‘oh, we've just terminated our relationship with those suppliers last week’. Others gave the technical defence, which is, ‘oh, we don't have a direct contractual relationship with that company, our supplier might sub-contract them’.’’
Some companies had threatened to sue but, as of early 2021, none had, said Munro.
Nike was presented as a case study and linked to a factory making sneakers in Qingdao, using evidence based on government memos, media reports and online posts.
Nike responded with a statement saying the factory had stopped hiring workers from Xinjiang but reports by Chinese media and the Washington Post found hundreds of Uyghurs still working there in early 2020.
Other clothing brands, such as Adidas, told ASPI, “they had no direct contractual relationships with the suppliers implicated in the labour schemes, but no brands were able to rule out a link further down their supply chain”.
Adidas did not respond to Stuff Circuit in time for publication of ‘Deleted’, but said in a statement that it strictly prohibits all forms of forced and prison labour and ‘’the use of forced labour by any of our partners will result in the termination of the partnership’’.
Munro called on consumers to question their support for companies linked to forced labour practices.
“The issue is particularly important with clothing because Xinjiang produces a huge proportion of China's cotton. There's absolutely enormous volumes of Xinjiang cotton in the world, especially the fast fashion supply chains.”
The Chinese government accuses ASPI of being supported by the US State Department and generating anti-China research to “denigrate and contain’’ the state.
ASPI openly reports its annual A$11.4 million in funding, with A$4 million coming from the Australian Department of Defence and A$1.4 million from US government departments in the last financial year.
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