A “vocational skills training center” in the walled city of Dasaka, Xinjiang, Sept. 4, 2018
Finnish pulp and paper manufacturing giant Stora Enso recently announced plans to stop producing dissolving wood pulp in the country’s city of Joensuu “for strategic and economic reasons. Previously, the company’s dissolving pulp was said to be exported from a factory making viscose fiber at a “re-Education camp” in neighboring Xinjiang.
According to the South China Morning Post, Xinjiang is now a major player in the global viscose fiber industry, and Finnish companies, led by Stora Enso, are the main suppliers of dissolving-grade chemical wood pulp in Xinjiang. Citing customs data, the newspaper said that since 2017 imports, Finland has exported a total of more than $367 million worth of dissolving wood pulp to the Xinjiang region.
The report noted that the process of processing pulp into viscose fiber involves dangerous chemical procedures, and that the factory in question is near a “re-education camp,” adding that there may be a relationship between the company and the alleged forced labor situation in Xinjiang. A Stora Enso spokesman was quoted as saying that company representatives regularly visit the Xinjiang factory and have never found forced labor problems.
In February, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin tweeted that the Chinese Communist authorities violate human rights and oppress minority groups, adding that business “has no reason to turn a blind eye to these atrocities,” according to Finnish radio station YLE. Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet recently condemned human rights abuses in Xinjiang. In addition, the governments or parliaments of the United States, Canada and the Netherlands have also described the official crackdown on Muslim minorities such as the Uighurs as “genocide.
Stora Enso declined a request for comment from the Finnish broadcaster, according to the report. But Seppo Parvi, the company’s chief financial officer and manager of Finnish operations, said in an email that the company had made a decision last year to abandon its dissolving wood pulp industry, which is not the core of its operations and represents “a small part” of the business.
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