Reuters reported on May 21 that Japanese apparel maker Mizuno and World Link Fashion will stop using Xinjiang cotton because of ongoing concerns about human rights violations in the region.
International apparel makers have been criticized for using cotton from the western region of Xinjiang, and Western countries including Japan have accused the Chinese Communist Party of imprisoning Muslim Uighurs on a large scale and imposing forced labor on local minorities.
Reuters on Wednesday cited a U.S. customs document showing that Uniqlo, a well-known Japanese apparel manufacturer, has been detained by customs at the U.S. port of Los Angeles since Jan. 5 of this year for allegedly violating a ban on using cotton from China’s Xinjiang region. Uniqlo’s parent company protested the seizure, but the U.S. side rejected it.
According to U.N. agencies and international human rights organizations, at least 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are being held in forced concentration in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has denied the existence of mass detention facilities in the name of “re-education” and “vocational training” and has used them for counter-terrorism propaganda.
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