Uyghurs for Sale: ‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang
(First published 1 March 2020) The Chinese government has facilitated the mass transfer of Uyghur and other ethnic minority citizens from the far west region of Xinjiang to factories across the country. Under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uyghurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of at least 82 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors, including Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen.
Hitachi Rail's statement on modern slavery
“Following the report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that implicated several Chinese companies as having allegedly directly or indirectly benefitted from the use of Uyghur workers forcibly moved outside the Xinjiang region through an abusive labour transfer program, one of these Chinese companies was a business that we have a non-supplier affiliation with. We have since conducted an independent onsite third party audit based on SA8000 and await the report findings.”
12 Japan firms will kill business deals involving Uyghur forced labor
Twelve major Japanese companies have established a policy of ceasing business deals with Chinese companies found to benefit from the forced labor of the Muslim Uyghur minority in China's far-western Xinjiang region, a Kyodo News investigation showed Sunday. With the exception of Panasonic Corp., which declined to comment, all companies either denied directly doing business with companies suspected of benefiting from forced labor or said they could not verify the claims against their suppliers. In terms of future policy, 12 companies responded that they would cease or consider ceasing business with business partners found to be using forced labor.