Reports since 2018 have confirmed that the Communist Party of China uses slave labour from Uyghur people in cotton-picking for manufacturing. Estimates put the total number of people from three different Uyghur regions participating in the cotton-picking scheme at around 570 000. Connections between supply chains of well-established companies such as Hugo Boss and Uniqlo and sourcing of such cotton by Chinese garment companies, such as Lu Thai Textiles, result in fears that the Western world is fuelling this slave labour.
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) [Ed: The province name Xinjiang means “new territory” in Mandarin Chinese, and is rejected as colonialist by many Uyghurs, in favour of East Turkmenistan], produces 20% of the world's cotton and 84% of China's cotton. Cotton from China has a global reach, whether through internal manufacture of garments that are exported, or direct exportation of the cotton. In light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the New York Times reported that personal protective equipment produced in China and used globally is also a product of Uyghur forced labour. These examples demonstrate the reach of the government’s coercive labour schemes.
CIVIL SOCIETY AND BUSINESS RESPONSES
The Thomas Reuters Foundation (TRF), a charitable organisation based in the United Kingdom (UK), has acted to address the reach of the Chinese coercive labour scheme. Mid-way through 2020 they contacted thirty leading retailers regarding the supply of cotton for their products. Companies such as Gap and Patagonia stated that their factories were not based within the XUAR, but they could neither confirm nor deny whether the cotton they used was produced in the XUAR. Other companies such as PVH, which holds the rights to brands such as Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, promised to suspend any existing relationships related to production in Xinjiang, within twelve months of the statement.
The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world, in the light of allegations of forced labour, decided to suspend licenses to cotton farmers within the XUAR by March 2020. This had a major impact, since other companies such as IKEA and H&M, which had soured BCI cotton from the XUAR, decided to halt any sourcing of the product due to the decision of the BCI. Similarly, British retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S), which uses 40 000 tonnes of lint cotton annually sourced from businesses that are BCI approved, ceased using cotton sourced from Xinjiang. M&S also signed a call to action over the forced labour of the Uyghurs, stating that "when it comes to sustainable and ethical clothing, we can only achieve real change at scale by working with others". They thereby set their ethical standards above many of their competitors.
Cotton On and Target Australia, two major Australian retailers, also suspended the sourcing of cotton from the XUAR. This decision followed on the report of Australian filmmaker Four Corners, released in July of 2019, on how Uyghur Muslims are being coerced to work in factories in the XUAR. Cotton On, which previously sourced from a garment company Litai Textiles, located only a short distance from a “re-education camp”, since the end of 2019 took action to ensure that they are "absolutely committed to having an ethical supply chain". This followed on an internal investigation which indicated that their cotton may have been the product of slave labour. Target Australia also underwent an internal investigation and decided to stop ordering cotton from a mill where they sourced their cotton, owned by the company Huafu, after finding that it may have been profiting from slave labour.
Such actions by these organisations and companies would logically result in a decline of demand for cotton from the XUAR, which would suggest that the Chinese government might scale down supply and reduce the number of Uyghurs being used for slave labour. Although the government is not paying for this labour, other costs related to production, such as guards and transportation, may result in a cut-back in forced labour, with the economic decisions from international companies ultimately having a positive effect.
GOVERNMENT REACTIONS FROM UK AND US
Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary of State for the UK, in January 2021 stated that UK businesses of a specific tenure will have to give evidence that they are avoiding the sourcing of products that may have been produced from slave labour within the XUAR. The government is yet to provide details of the consequences for failure to do so, but promised to provide guidelines for business entities on the risks of trade within the XUAR.
Conservative Member of Parliament and Committee member of the “Forced labour in UK value chains” inquiry, Nusrat Ghani, has called for UK businesses to “wake up” and to “examine their supply lines rigorously and make sure they are absolutely clear that they are not profiting from slave labour and abuse of the Uyghurs”. He praised corporations such as M&S, Burberry and Tesco for already doing so.
In the US, the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) issued “withhold release” orders (WRO) in relation to Chinese cotton, which prevent certain merchandise from being allowed into the country on the basis that it was produced through forced labour. The first order was issued on 30 November 2020 towards the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corporation (XPCC), and another on 13 February 2021 in relation to all imports from the XUAR. XPCC is a Chinese state-owned paramilitary and economic body operating in the XUAR, and is one of China’s largest cotton producers, responsible for producing 30% of Chinese cotton in 2015. The onus is now on US importers to prove that cotton or cotton products imported from XUAR were not produced using forced labour.
The Department for Homeland Security noted that the US annually imports $9 billion worth of cotton goods, and underscored that the WRO imposed on the region that produces 84% of China’s cotton will hit the Chinese economy substantially. Former Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security, Kenneth Cuccinelli, also stated that the “Made in China” label should serve as a warning to consumers that the product may originate from slave labour practices committed by the Chinese government, who are profiting from the largest human rights breach in the world today.
While the fight against XUAR cotton is quite strong across the world, it is still unclear whether there is any light at the end of the tunnel for the Uyghur minority subjected to these ongoing abuses, including forced labour.
Thomas Coffey is currently a gap year student, who is looking to study European Social and Political studies at UCL in September. Hs is interested in International relations and human rights, and specifically how this may affect business.