On May 1, 2024, officials from the US Department of Labor stated on Tuesday (April 30) that due to concerns about forced labor, international companies cannot operate responsibly in Xinjiang and should leave the region.
The US government has indicated that Chinese officials continue to commit crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uighur people and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Human rights organizations have been pressuring Western companies operating in the region to conduct audits on forced labor issues.
The US Congress has passed laws to pressure the Chinese government regarding Xinjiang policies, including the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which prohibits imports from Xinjiang.
On Tuesday, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing titled “Factories and Fraud in the PRC: How Human Rights Violations Make Reliable Audits Impossible.”
According to a press release from the CECC, over the past 20 years, as global brands and retailers sought to address concerns about human rights and environmental degradation in their supply chains, social responsibility audits and certifications for factories and supply chains in the People’s Republic of China (Communist China) have increased significantly. The Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act requires that there be no forced labor in the supply chain, yet companies have been using social audits and certifications to help cover up rather than expose human rights violations.
Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs at the US Department of Labor Thea Lee stated during the congressional hearing that Beijing has deemed independent human rights audits in Xinjiang as “intrinsically illegal.”
Lee told the CECC, “If it’s not possible to do that [human rights audits], then the only responsible thing to do is not to operate in that kind of environment.”
She did not mention specific company names.
After human rights organizations documented abuses including forced labor in detention camps on February 9, the German chemical giant BASF announced it would sell its stake in two joint ventures in Xinjiang.
The CECC press release also touched on issues involving Volkswagen. It stated that recent controversies arose after Volkswagen, a German auto manufacturer, used a statement from an audit company to claim that there was no forced labor in its factories in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This case has raised concerns about corruption, conflicts of interest, unreliable audits, and social audits, especially those conducted in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region where state-sanctioned forced labor is widespread.
“The purpose of this hearing is to expose China’s misuse of third-party social audits and certifications and to identify what additional measures need to be taken to reveal human rights abuses and labor exploitation in China’s supply chains,” the press release mentioned.
Volkswagen stated that they are currently negotiating with their Chinese joint venture partners on the future direction of their operations in Xinjiang.
In 2017, Beijing launched harsh crackdowns in Xinjiang. Some experts have noted that while the mass detention of Uighurs peaked in 2018, abuses persist as labor transfers become more prominent.
Despite this, the Chinese government continues to develop Xinjiang into a heavy industrial center, including aluminum processing, as well as the production of automotive components, solar panels, and other goods entering global supply chains.
The US Department of Labor has not set rules on how American companies should operate in China. Lee mentioned that the number of Uighur labor transfers to other regions within China has been increasing, but verifying the scale of these programs has been challenging.
“I haven’t found an effective way to address the challenges of supervising labor transfer programs outside of Xinjiang,” Lee said.
She noted that data on Chinese websites is regularly deleted, and there is limited access to workplaces in China to assess the workers’ backgrounds.
Following the US and Canada’s declaration of genocide against Uighur Muslims by the Chinese government, the UK Parliament passed a motion in August 2021, labeling China’s repression of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang as “genocide.” In January 2022, the French Parliament passed a motion led by the opposition demanding the government to condemn China for committing “crimes against humanity and genocide” against the Uighur Muslim minority and to take diplomatic measures to stop it.
The Chinese government acknowledges the existence of “vocational training centers” in Xinjiang but claims they are in place to combat terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism.
(Reference: Reuters)