#Newspaper
Apple imported clothes from Xinjiang firm facing US forced labour sanctions
(11 Aug) The US government in July imposed sanctions on Changji Esquel Textile, a unit of the Hong Kong garment group Esquel, along with 10 other Chinese companies for alleged human rights violations in the Xinjiang region. The sanctions bar companies from buying US technology and other goods. Esquel has denied these allegations.
Esquel supplies many major US clothing companies including Patagonia, Nike and Tommy Hilfiger. In particular, Apple has a history with the firm for many years. It likely produced uniforms for staff in Apple stores. Until recently, Esquel’s website listed Apple as a “major customer”.
Apple said in a statement: “Esquel is not a direct supplier to Apple but our suppliers do use cotton from their facilities in Guangzhou and Vietnam...” However, neither Guangzhou nor Vietnam supply Esquel with cotton.
Of Esquel's many factories across Asia, the only location used “for cotton farming, ginning and spinning” is Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities’ persecution of mostly Muslim minorities has included forced labour. Esquel's Changji and Kashgar units in Xinjiang are among those sanctioned. The latter had a joint venture lasting more than two decades with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a paramilitary government organisation. The XPCC produces about one-third of China’s cotton.
“It is such a deeply entrenched, and broadly enmeshed system of oppression... that has involved hundreds of companies...” James Millward, professor of history at Georgetown University, said. Even if the companies’ own factories can be certified free of forced labour, they are often working with – or with authorisation from – the local governments to manage the abuse.
Source: MSN
Credit to: Hong Kong Echo
Further reading:
The relationship between XPCC and Hong Kong
https://telegra.ph/The-relationship-between-XPCC-and-Hong-Kong-08-15
#Sanction #Xinjiang #Apple #Patagonia #Nike #TommyHilfiger #Esquel #XPCC
Apple imported clothes from Xinjiang firm facing US forced labour sanctions
(11 Aug) The US government in July imposed sanctions on Changji Esquel Textile, a unit of the Hong Kong garment group Esquel, along with 10 other Chinese companies for alleged human rights violations in the Xinjiang region. The sanctions bar companies from buying US technology and other goods. Esquel has denied these allegations.
Esquel supplies many major US clothing companies including Patagonia, Nike and Tommy Hilfiger. In particular, Apple has a history with the firm for many years. It likely produced uniforms for staff in Apple stores. Until recently, Esquel’s website listed Apple as a “major customer”.
Apple said in a statement: “Esquel is not a direct supplier to Apple but our suppliers do use cotton from their facilities in Guangzhou and Vietnam...” However, neither Guangzhou nor Vietnam supply Esquel with cotton.
Of Esquel's many factories across Asia, the only location used “for cotton farming, ginning and spinning” is Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities’ persecution of mostly Muslim minorities has included forced labour. Esquel's Changji and Kashgar units in Xinjiang are among those sanctioned. The latter had a joint venture lasting more than two decades with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a paramilitary government organisation. The XPCC produces about one-third of China’s cotton.
“It is such a deeply entrenched, and broadly enmeshed system of oppression... that has involved hundreds of companies...” James Millward, professor of history at Georgetown University, said. Even if the companies’ own factories can be certified free of forced labour, they are often working with – or with authorisation from – the local governments to manage the abuse.
Source: MSN
Credit to: Hong Kong Echo
Further reading:
The relationship between XPCC and Hong Kong
https://telegra.ph/The-relationship-between-XPCC-and-Hong-Kong-08-15
#Sanction #Xinjiang #Apple #Patagonia #Nike #TommyHilfiger #Esquel #XPCC
Msn
Apple imported clothes from Xinjiang firm facing US forced labour sanctions
Apple has imported clothes – probably uniforms for staff in stores – from a company facing US sanctions over forced labour at a subsidiary firm in China’s western Xinjiang region, shipping records show.