New Report Claims Apple Supplier Uses Forced Labour in China
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While Apple says it has a thorough system of checks to ensure components used in its products are produced in an ethical manner, a new report claims that well known Apple supplier Lens Technology uses forced labour comprised of Uighur Muslim workers in China.
An iPhone parts supplier has been accused of using Uighur Muslims as forced labour at its factories in China.
The US-based Tech Transparency Project alleges that thousands of Uighur workers from Xinjiang were sent to work for Chinese firm Lens Technology in labour transfers which watchdogs have linked to human rights abuses.
The Apple supplier, which makes glass screen covers for iPhones, is said to have received Uighur workers in conditions which hinted at involuntary labour and political education .
Apple denied the allegations published in the Washington Post, saying it had confirmed that Lens Technology was not using transferred Uighur workers.
Apple supplier Lens Technology accused of using forced Uighur labor
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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
A major Chinese supplier of consumer electronics components, Lens Technology, has been accused of using forced-labor Uighur workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang, China, according to a report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) shared with
The Verge.
The report says Lens Technology a gadget glass supplier to companies like Amazon, Apple, and Tesla has used thousands of such workers as part of the Chinese government’s ongoing detention and forced labor campaign against people of the Uighur minority.
Apple Punished Employee for Approving App That Was Critical of Beijing, Lawsuit Alleges
A former Apple employee alleges in a lawsuit that the company punished him for approving an app critical of the Chinese regime, in order to appease Beijing authorities.
The allegations were made by Trieu Pham, a former app reviewer for the tech giant, in a discrimination and wrongful termination suit filed at the Santa Clara, California, Superior Court in December 2019.
In his complaint, Pham states that in 2018, he was criticized by his Apple managers for approving an app by Guo Media because it was “critical of the Chinese government.” Guo Media is a website created by Guo Wengui, a dissident Chinese businessman exiled in the United States and wanted by Beijing on alleged economic crimes, who’s known for making allegations about massive corruption at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership.
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