Nike reacts to reports of Uyghur forced labor
The China Project illustration by Derek Zheng
Nike is “reviewing its suppliers’ hiring practices in China,” the Washington Post reports, after reports that one of its factories in Qingdao was using likely coerced Uyghur labor.
One of its biggest suppliers in the world, the South Korean–owned Qingdao Taekwang Shoes Co., was now looking for ways to end the contracts of Uyghur workers making Nikes in its factory, the American company said in a statement posted on its website.
Meanwhile, there appears to be growing bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress for cracking down on forced labor by Uyghurs in Xinjiang. A newly introduced bill “seeks to require that evidence be provided by businesses for each item to show that it had an untainted chain of production” in China, CNN reports. Separately, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has written a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross raising concerns about the “horrific conditions of forced labor in Xinjiang,” per Reuters.
