All Reading
This section contains a curated list of useful articles, investigations, books and other reading materials. The list is updated on a weekly basis and suggestions for additions are welcome.
Starting Points:
The Procurement Bill is a chance for the UK to put its money where its mouth is on human rights
Part of the Procurement Bill legislation would allow for the discretionary exclusion of companies implicated in human rights abuses, including those used by the Chinese state to oppress minorities.
Designer Louise Xin's mission to fight forced labor with fashion
Amongst Chinese-Swedish couture designer Louise Xin’s fashion debut were signs sharing the designer’s commitment to human rights including a banner unfurled at the end of the catwalk declaring, “Free Uyghur: End All Genocide.”
Europe’s politicians (but not its businesses) speak out after UN report on China abuses
European reaction to a scathing U.N. report on Chinese human rights abuses lays bare a deep EU strategic vulnerability: While politicians can speak out against Beijing, companies are too exposed to China's massive market to do so.
Event: Making Xinjiang Sanctions Work
This webinar introduces the Making Xinjiang Sanctions Work report from the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab, the first in-depth study of government & corporate responses to alleged forced labour in Xinjiang, based on 3 data sets with over 12,000 datapoints, confidential interviews and more than a year of research.
Interview: ‘You have to put people over profit’
Jewish World Watch’s executive director sits down with RFA to discuss the launch of the Uyghur Forced Labor Database, which lists Western companies across a number of sectors that have been implicated as benefiting from Uyghur forced labor.
Hikvision Interrogation Solution For PRC Police
Hikvision has a custom PRC China interrogation solution that integrates with tiger chairs, metal restraining devices used by Chinese police to lock detainees' hands and feet while they are being interrogated, IVPM reported today.
‘An Invisible Cage’: How China Is Policing The Future
Across China, the police are buying technology that harnesses vast surveillance data to predict crime and protest before they happen, targeting people whose behavior or characteristics are suspicious in the eyes of an algorithm and the Chinese authorities, even if they’ve done nothing wrong.
Uyghur Forced Labor Database
Jewish World Watch’s Uyghur Forced Labor Database – the most extensive to date – brings to light more than 600 national and international companies and their ties to the Xinjiang region of China.
US ban on imports from China's Xinjiang region takes effect
Tough new US regulations on the import of goods from the Xinjiang region of China have come into effect under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).
Report: Hikvision cameras help Xinjiang police ensnare Uyghurs
Cameras made by Chinese surveillance company Hikvision are deeply integrated into an intelligence program aimed at tracking and detaining Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang, according to a new report.
Built on Repression
This report investigates the increased manufacturing of PVC through state-sponsored labour transfers in China’s Uyghur Region and the routes by which the resulting building materials make their way into international markets, providing a road map for understanding the violations occurring in Xinjiang and how the products of those abuses pervade supply chains.
How Vinyl Flooring Made With Uyghur Forced Labor Ends Up at Big Box Stores
A new report details the toll taken by the flooring industry, painting a devastating picture of oppression and pollution in the Uyghur region.
VW Under Fire for Ongoing Operations in Xinjiang
Volkswagen continues to operate a factory in the heart of Xinjiang, despite massive criticism from human rights activists. Is the company trying to prove its loyalty to the Chinese government?
Xinjiang cotton found in Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss tops, researchers say
Researchers say they have found traces of Xinjiang cotton in shirts and T-shirts made by Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss, appearing to contradict the German clothing companies’ promises to revise their supply chains after allegations of widespread forced labour in the Chinese region.
Amazon is reportedly using Chinese suppliers with ties to forced labor
Amazon is allegedly employing suppliers in China with links to forced labor, according to a report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP). The report accuses Amazon of continuing to work with these suppliers, despite evidence of their association with Uyghur labor camps.
World Bank unit is financing Chinese companies that appear to employ forced laborers, report says
An arm of the taxpayer-funded World Bank has provided nearly $500 million in financing to four Chinese companies that appear to have employed forced laborers in the country’s Xinjiang region, according to a new report.
Financing & genocide: Development finance and the crisis in the Uyghur Region
A joint investigation reveals how the World Bank’s private lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has several significant investments in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where indigenous peoples have been subjected to what international legislators, legal scholars, and advocates have determined to be a genocide.
Hugo Boss And Other Big Brands Vowed To Steer Clear Of Forced Labor In China — But These Shipping Records Raise Questions
Amid rising tensions and the approaching Beijing Olympics, the US banned Xinjiang cotton last year. But Hugo Boss still took shipments from Esquel, which gins cotton in Xinjiang.
Elon Musk: Tesla criticised after opening Xinjiang showroom
Electric car maker Tesla has been criticised in the US after opening a showroom in China's controversial Xinjiang region. The company, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, opened the showroom in the city of Urumqi on New Year's Eve.
Intel apologises in China over Xinjiang supplier statement
U.S. chip maker Intel apologised in China on Thursday after its letter telling suppliers not to source products or labour from the Xinjiang region triggered a backlash, making it the latest western firm to be tripped up over rights issues in the country.