Global retailers have recently received criticism over cotton supplies sourced from Xinjiang, a region in China currently plagued by human rights abuse claims, including forced labor.
Many retailers are reportedly indirectly sourcing cotton from the Xinjiang region in China despite allegations that the Uighur minority there are being persecuted and recruited for forced labor.
Recently, Japanese retailers Muji and Uniqlo received flak after a report indicated that the brands used the Xinjiang-origin of their cotton as a selling point in advertisements. A Wall Street Journal investigation also indicated that H&M, Esprit and Adidas are among the retailers said to be at the end of supply chains involving cotton products from Xinjiang.
Nathan Ruser, researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, pointed out: "You can't be sure that you don't have coerced labour in your supply chain if you do cotton business in China. Xinjiang labor and what is almost certainly coerced labor is very deeply entrenched into the supply chain that exists in Xinjiang."
According to UN experts and human rights groups, the Chinese government is currently holding over a million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in vast detention camps in Xinjiang, where they are made to learn Mandarin Chinese, swear loyalty to President Xi Jinping, and criticize or renounce their faith.
However, China denied the allegations and claimed that those people are attending "vocational training centers" which are giving them jobs and helping them integrate into Chinese society, while preventing terrorism.
In October, the US Commerce Department blacklisted 28 Chinese organizations for allegedly abusing ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang province in China. Its Entity List bans them from purchasing products from US companies without approval from the government.
The department stated that these groups are involved in “China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”
