Rights group says global brands are at risk of links to forced labour in China's minerals industry
A car drives through a desert where a signboard which reads "Welcome to the Hotan Unity New Village" is seen on display in Hotan, in western China's Xinjiang region on Sept. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
LONDON — Several global brands are among dozens of companies at risk of using forced labour through their Chinese supply chains because they use critical minerals or buy minerals-based products sourced from the far-western Xinjiang region of China, an international rights group said Wednesday.
The report by the Netherlands-based Global Rights Compliance says companies including Avon, Walmart, Nescafe, Coca-Cola and paint supplier Sherwin-Williams may be linked to titanium sourced from Xinjiang, where rights groups allege the Chinese government runs coercive labour practices targeting predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities.
The report found 77 Chinese suppliers in the titanium, lithium, beryllium and magnesium industries operating in Xinjiang. It said the suppliers are at risk of participating in the Chinese government's 'labour transfer programs,' in which Uyghurs are forced to work in factories as part of a long-standing campaign of assimilation and mass detention.
Commercial paints, thermos cups and components for the aerospace, auto and defense industries are among products sold internationally that can trace their supply chains to minerals from Xinjiang, the report said. It said that companies must review their supply chains.
'Mineral mining and processing in (Xinjiang) rely in part on the state's forced labour programs for Uyghurs and other Turkic people in the region,' the report said.
The report came as China and the United States, the world's two largest economies, said that they have agreed on a framework to get their trade negotiations back on track after a series of disputes that threatened to derail them. The two sides on Tuesday wrapped up two days of talks in London that appeared to focus on finding a way to resolve disputes over mineral and technology exports that had shaken a fragile truce on trade reached in Geneva last month.
Asked about the report, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that 'no one has ever been forcibly transferred in China's Xinjiang under work programs.'
'The so-called allegation of forced labour in China's Xinjiang region is nothing but a lie concocted by certain anti-China forces. We urge the relevant organization to stop interfering in China's internal affairs and undermining Xinjiang's prosperity and stability under the guise of human rights,' ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Wednesday.
The named companies didn't immediately comment on the report.
A UN report from 2022 found China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, where more than 1 million Uyghurs are estimated to have been arbitrarily detained as part of measures that the Chinese government said were intended to target terrorism and separatism.
The Chinese government has rejected the UN claims and defended its actions in Xinjiang as fighting terror and ensuring stability.
In 2021, then U.S. president Joe Biden signed a law to block imports from the Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove the items were made without forced labour. The law initially targeted solar products, tomatoes, cotton and apparel, but the U.S. government recently added new sectors for enforcement, including aluminum and seafood.
Many of China's major minerals corporations have invested in the exploration and mining of lithium, a key component for electric vehicle batteries, in Xinjiang, Global Rights Compliance said. Xinjiang is also China's top source of beryllium, a mineral used for aerospace, defense and telecommunications, its report said.
A recent report by the International Energy Agency said that the world's sources of critical minerals are increasingly concentrated in a few countries, notably China, which is also a leading refining and processing base for lithium, cobalt, graphite and other minerals.
The Associated Press
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