CHINA / SOCIETY By Global Times Published: Jan 13, 2021 01:34 AM
A worker in the Pomegranate Seed Garment Co. in Northwest China s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region agrees to have her photo taken. Photo: Fan Lingzhi/GT
The UK is reportedly set to tighten laws on imports related to China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for so-called forced labor accusations, an impetuous move that has been made based on untenable “evidence” which will worsen the frosty China-UK ties, analysts said.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was reportedly to make a statement on Tuesday in the House of Commons on the UK government’s response to allegations of “forced labor” in China’s Xinjiang region, The Telegraph reported on Monday.
Retailer M&S backs call to stop forced labor in Xinjiang taipeitimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from taipeitimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Britain s M&S backs call to stop forced labour in China s Xinjiang 07 Jan 2021 / 01:29 H.
By Kieran Guilbert
LONDON, Jan 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - British retailer Marks & Spencer on Wednesday became one of the first major brands to back a drive to stop forced labour in cotton and garment sourcing from China s Xinjiang region.
M&S signed a call to action by The Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region - consisting of more than 300 civil society groups - to cut ties with suppliers in China that profit from the forced labour of the ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims.
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The fashion industry must come together to eradicate the use of forced labour in China s cotton supply chain, writes Kate Larsen, founder of responsible sourcing consultancy SupplyESChange.
Last week, the BBC documented the forced labour of Uyghur people in the cotton industry of the Xinjiang region of west China, where many are being moved from so-called “re-education” internment camps to work in factories. This is not new – a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute explored the issue back in March – but indicates an increase in the scale and scope of the abuses.
I was asked by the BBC to speak on the issue because I have extensive experience in the ethical trading and responsible sourcing of fashion. I have spent years in China, monitoring and engaging with suppliers, and I have interviewed Uyghur workers forced to labour in a Chinese factory.
15 Dec 2020
A study published Monday by researcher Dr. Adrian Zenz revealed that the Communist Party of China has forced over half a million mostly ethnic minority residents of Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province, into the arduous cotton picking industry as part of a supposed “poverty alleviation” program.
In the study, published by the Center for Global Policy, Zenz details the use of smartphone “poverty alleviation” applications to harvest detailed information on millions of people in Xinjiang, later used to force many of these individuals to work in cotton fields. Victims of the program, mostly members of the ethnic Uyghur minority that predominates in Xinjiang, receive extremely small salaries – less than minimum wage – and are also subject to a communist indoctrination program that teaches them to believe the phrase, “I want to work.”