Weighing Human Rights Against Company Profit in Xinjiang

"I've gotten more calls since the beginning of this year than in my previous 15 years at Human Rights Watch."

"Banks, manufacturers, investment firms, textile companies are all asking the same question -- in light of all the information ... about Xinjiang, can they maintain their business there and feel at peace with it?"

Sophie Richardson, China director, Human Rights Watch

"[Companies] feel like they're in a war zone right now."

"These apparel brands are ... in a nearly impossible place and they just have to decide which side of history they're on."

"There are no easy outs."

Bennett Freeman, former U.S. State Department human rights official

"Companies are frozen like rabbits in the headlights."

"The supply chain oversight nightmare is coming to a head."

Alison Taylor, Stern business school, New York University

Now that Anta is firmly placing its stake in the ground on Xinjiang cotton, I wonder about their subsidiary brands, including @WilsonSportingG, who will be the official ball of @NBA starting next season. Elliott Zaagman, Twitter

 

"They'll have to realize that they're doing the wrong thing", said Jewher Ilham, an activist with Worker Rights Consortium, a labour rights monitoring group. "This is a moral test that will be remembered by history." He knows whereof he speaks, in the most intimate of ways. His father Ilham Tohti, is a Uyghur rights advocate. China gave him a life sentence on separatism charges, and his son considers it to be "extremely concerning" that some brands are in the process of reversing themselves, in the process emboldening Beijing.

The situation that has evolved with Western democracies pointing a finger of accusation at Beijing for its treatment of its Turkic minority Muslim populations is one of awkward polarization. On one  hand brand corporations want to be viewed by their client base as principled and responsible. On the other hand, they are focused on their bottom line; profitability and shareholder satisfaction. So the scale has been unbalanced as they come under scrutiny themselves, with the demand to make a choice. Between human rights and profits from the Chinese mega-market.

China's hosting of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has human rights activists urging that companies take a stand over the repression of China's Uyghurs populating the province of Xinjiang. Which, like Tibet, was once a country outside China's orbit and now in Chinese control as officially part of China, its indigenous people have been agitating for thirty years for sovereignty, or, as Beijing puts it 'splitism'. Beijing does not appreciate insurgencies and it has been battling one in Xinjiang for decades.

The U.S.declared the persecution of the Uyghurs to be "genocidal" in nature, while the U.S. Congress is working on legislation to force companies to ensure their supply chains make no use of forced labour from Xinjiang. In response, Beijing has initiated nationalist fervour in opposition to brands that have gone on record as criticizing the treatment of Uyghurs. Nike Inc. and Hannes & Maritz AB voiced concerns on the plight of the Muslim Uyghurs hinting of plans to eliminate forced labour from the region from their supply chains.

There has been a backlash from the Chinese public, spurred on by Beijing appealing to its citizens' sense of loyalty to their country being tarnished by these accusations from brand sources. Which has had a sufficiently alarming effect in reduced traffic to web sites and lower sales to induce some to reverse themselves. VF Corporation, owners of The North Face brand, eliminated a statement relating to Xinjiang referencing the use of forced labour. A section on its website on forced labour makes no mention of Xinjiang now, and another section on the region itself makes no reference to forced labour.

 

A protester shows solidarity with the Uighur Muslims in China at a rally in Hong Kong in December 2019. Associated Press

 

Xinjiang, apart from being a rich source of petroleum products, is also the dominant source of Chinese cotton and a supplier of polysilicon used to make solar panels. When China mobilized boycotts of some western brands last week following the U.S., E.U., U.K. and Canada placing sanctions on some Chinese officials for their role in Xinjiang policy, "blind panic" -- among companies using China as their production base for cheap labour -- ensued.

Chinese social media users have sprung into action. H&M, the Swedish retailer accused by China's Communist Youth League for its "boycotting" of Xinjiang cotton, discovered its presence suddenly disappeared from search listings on major e-commerce platforms; itself 'boycotted'. 

 

The cover of “Uyghurs for Sale” by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.