At day they do slave labor and their products are sold to Apple, Nike, Adidas among other brands. At night they are forced to attend re education camps. They are under surveillance 24/7. They are not allowed to leave the concentration camps
Report: At least 80,000 Muslim Chinese forced to produce designer clothes
According to a new report, Chinese factories that use forced labor deliver goods to giant companies such as Nike and Adidas. Lie, China replies.
Just now
Uighurs are being massively monitored in China. They are not allowed to practice Islam and are indoctrinated in the Communist Party program in factories surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers.
There they also produce branded clothes that are exported to the whole world. It claims a report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
- Basically, everything sent out of China can be "infected" by forced labor, says the report's author, Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, to VG.
- Slave labor
In the case of Nike, the report writes that at at least one factory, Uighur employees are refused to practice Islam, or go home on vacation.
- Nike has so many factories in the world, so it is impossible to know which garment or shoes are made of slave labor, says Xiuzhong Xu.
Nike has not responded to VG's repeated inquiries.
- An app monitors
Workers often live with a very high degree of surveillance, according to the report.
- They have an app on the phone that monitors them and they have to inform in chat groups where they are, Xiuzhong Xu says.
A Washington Post reporter who has visited a factory has shared the findings in the report. She saw a watchtower, barbed wire fences everywhere, a police station inside the factory area, and that workers could not leave the factory.
At a factory where Adidas shoes are made, workers have long days. During the day they work, and in the evenings the "retraining" continues.
To VG, Adidas says that their guidelines prohibit the use of coercion and labor from prisoners. They deny that they have used goods from Xinjiang, but after the report was published, Adidas has told its suppliers not to use yarn from this region.
- If any of our partners use forced labor, we will end our partnership, says communications consultant Stefan Pursche to VG.
Further down in the case, you can see what the Chinese authorities respond to the allegations of forced labor and forced assimilation of Uighurs.
Thoroughly documented
In November,
The New York Times published more than 400 leaked documents about how the Chinese government is working to break down the Muslim minority. Among the documents is an unpublished speech by President Xi Jinping, urging officials to show "no mercy."
Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have accused the Chinese authorities of keeping one million Uighurs incarcerated.
Although the report states that this applies to 80,000 Uighurs, Vicky Xiuzhong Xu says that the estimate is low. Many more Uighurs are likely to be forced to work, both inside and outside Xinjiang Province.
- Absolutely no credibility
The Chinese Embassy in Norway is responding on behalf of the Chinese authorities. They deny that Uighurs are being subjected to forced labor, and say the report is an attempt to blacken China.
According to the embassy, Chinese Uighurs have the opportunity to take paid work with all rights, on an equal footing with all other Chinese citizens.
Call it vocational training
Regarding the retraining program, the Chinese embassy says that Xinjiang has long been plagued by terrorism and extremism. They say that the "education and instruction center" is an attempt to counteract this.
The aim of the school is to provide participants with information about the constitution, criminal law, marriage law, and laws that protect minors and women.
"Attempts by external anti-China forces and extremists who want to sabotage China's development by fabricating lies and provoking inter-ethnic relations will not succeed," the embassy wrote.
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