Seven Apple suppliers have been charged in connection with forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. Apple said in a statement that their investigation found no evidence of forced labor anywhere in Apple’s operations.
A report published Monday (May 11) by The Information, a California-based digital media company, said an investigation by the company and human rights groups found that seven companies that provided Apple with device components, coatings and assembly services were allegedly involved in forced labor of Uighurs and other oppressed minorities in China. oppressed minorities in China. The investigation found that at least five of these companies took on thousands of Uighur and other minority workers at specific factories or subsidiaries that had business relationships with Apple.
This report specifically mentions Advanced-Connectek, which has been manufacturing unaffordable products for Apple. which has been making obscure but vital computer components for Apple. For two of those years, the report said, the company operated a factory in an industrial park on the edge of the Xinjiang desert. The industrial park is surrounded by walls and fences and has only one access road with checkpoints. Lien Chan Technology is the only one of these suppliers to operate a facility in Xinjiang, the report said.
In a statement provided to The Information, Apple said it conducted an assessment of suppliers and that forced labor was one of the issues investigated during the assessment.
“Looking for the presence of forced labor is part of every assessment we conduct in every country where we do business,” Apple said in the statement. It added, “Despite the limitations of the New Crown outbreak, we conducted further investigations and found no evidence of forced labor anywhere we operate. We will continue to do everything we can to protect our workers and ensure they are treated with dignity and respect.”
Many of the companies mentioned in the report also produce parts used by companies such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft.
The U.S. government has determined that the way Chinese authorities have treated Muslim minorities such as the Uighurs in Xinjiang constitutes genocide and crimes against humanity. The House Foreign Affairs Committee of Congress on April 21 passed the Forced Uighur Labor Prevention Act, which aims to ensure that products of forced labor in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region do not enter the U.S. market, and bills condemning Chinese authorities for genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups.
The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada have recently imposed sanctions on Chinese officials and institutions for human rights abuses and forced labor in Xinjiang.
The Chinese government has denied violating the human rights of Uighur and other minorities in Xinjiang and has imposed retaliatory sanctions on individuals and groups from the United States and other countries.
A number of Western countries and human rights organizations are scheduled to hold a videoconference at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday to discuss human rights issues in Xinjiang. The Chinese Permanent Mission to the United Nations called for the conference to be canceled, saying it was “interference in China’s internal affairs.
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