In a recent survey, 96 percent of German businesses active in China said they planned to stay there. That’s because there’s money to be made. There is, alas, also the matter of image. In a 2020 report, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a think tank, reported that 27 factories in nine Chinese provinces were using Uighur workers from Xinjiang, including forcibly interned ones. “Those factories claim to be part of the supply chain of 82 well-known global brands,” ASPI found, and “some factories appear to be using Uyghur workers sent directly from ‘re-education camps.’”
Although Beijing does not allow outside observers access to the camps, ex-inmates who have managed to leave China have provided harrowing accounts of systematic rape of female detainees and other crimes. The brands identified by ASPI include Abercrombie & Fitch, Acer, Adidas, Amazon, Apple, Asus, BMW, Bosch, Calvin Klein, Cerruti 1881, Cisco, Dell, Electrolux, Gap, General Motors, Google, H&M, Hitachi, HP, HTC, Jaguar, L.L.Bean, Lacoste, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Mitsumi, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, Samsung, Sharp, Siemens, Skechers, Sony, TDK, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret, Vivo, Volkswagen, and Zara.
