No images? Click here [link removed]
A basketball player wears Nike shoes during an NCAA game on February 28, 2021. (G Fiume/Getty Images)
As you watch basketball players in Nike shoes run across the court during the NCAA's Final Four matchups, know that the swoosh might have been made by forced labor in China.
Evidence indicates that Nike's factory in Qingdao used the forced labor of ethnic Uyghur Muslims up until last year and may be ongoing, despite the company's assurances to the contrary. In an op-ed for the [[link removed]] National Review [[link removed]], Hudson's Nury Turkel [[link removed]] calls out Nike and the NCAA teams that have accepted the company's sponsorship, and offers suggestions on how fans and basketball players can stand in solidarity with the Uyghur people.
In Newsweek [[link removed]], Nury joined Rabbi Abraham Cooper to highlight the role of forced labor in global cotton production and reflect upon companies like Volkswagen and Hugo Boss, whose collaborations with Nazi Germany are paralleled with their complicity in Uyghur forced labor.
Check out these must-reads from Nury.
Just Do It: Nike's Forced Labor Problem [[link removed]]
Key quotes from Nury Turkel's op-ed in National Review, " NCAA Basketball Teams Should Take a Stand against Uyghur Genocide [[link removed]]"
1. Nike's Qingdao factory has used—and may still use—forced labor:
One of Nike’s factories in China employed an estimated 800 Uyghurs against their will, according to a 2019 report by the Australian Strategy Policy Institute. And while a “Statement on Xinjiang” issued by Nike in March 2020 claims [[link removed]] that “an independent third-party audit confirmed there are no longer any employees from XUAR [Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region]” at its facility in Qingdao, it’s unclear when this audit took place.
As late as February 2020, on-the-ground reporting [[link removed]] by the Washington Post has confirmed that Uyghur workers were still employed at the factory against their will. Nike claims that its code of conduct and audit protocols prohibit any involvement in forced labor and other human-rights violations. But how reliable can these safeguards be if they did not prevent Nike’s complicity up until the point when Uyghur workers were “no longer” at the Qingdao factory?
2. Nike supports major fashion-industry associations that are lobbying against the passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act:
Nike has been similarly opaque about its response to activists’ efforts to hold the Chinese government accountable for its abuses. The company told [[link removed]] the New York Times in November that it “did not lobby against” the bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a bill designed to end the enslavement of Uyghurs in China. Yet this claim is undermined by its decision to partner [[link removed]] with major fashion-industry associations that issued [[link removed]] a public statement opposing the bill in September 2020.
3. College basketball players are unwittingly promoting a company that is complicit in China's genocidal campaign against Uyghur Muslims:
By continuing to accept Nike as their sponsor, NCAA teams are allowing their student athletes to act as ambassadors for a company that profits from the misery and oppression of others. The players and fans — to say nothing of the Uyghur people — deserve better.
Student athletes representing these teams are unwittingly promoting a company that has been complicit in China’s genocidal campaign against Uyghur Muslims in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, which the Uyghurs call East Turkistan. Uyghurs in Xinjiang have been systematically imprisoned in “re-education” camps, used as forced labor, sterilized, and killed by the Chinese government. And though Nike has publicly claimed innocence, it is well-documented that the company has profited from these atrocities in the past.
Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
Read the Op-Ed [[link removed]]
The Companies Fighting Against Efforts to End Forced Uyghur Labor [[link removed]]
Key takeaways from Nury Turkel's op-ed in Newsweek, " Hugo Boss and Volkswagen Repeat History by Exploiting Enslaved Uyghurs [[link removed]]"
1. In all likelihood, we've all bought products made using forced labor:
An estimated one-fifth of all cotton garments are made using Xinjiang cotton. Uyghur enslavement is so widespread in the Xinjiang cotton industry that most people reading this article are probably wearing a T-shirt or face mask produced using Uyghur forced labor. It is well-documented that the Chinese government has conscripted more than half a million Uyghurs to work without pay in cotton fields, and another 1.6 million are estimated to be vulnerable to full-time forced labor.
2. Major corporations are fighting legislative efforts to end forced labor in China:
Companies are also sending lobbyists to Capitol Hill to make the case for continuing business as usual. Last year, it was reported [[link removed]] that Apple [[link removed]], Nike and Coca-Cola were lobbying against the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), the landmark piece of legislation that would prohibit tainted products from entering the United States. The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House last fall, but has stalled in the Senate [[link removed]]. The new Congress [[link removed]] re-introduced the bill last month and is receiving broad bipartisan support.
3. Companies should commit to redirecting their supply chains away from Xinjiang cotton:
In October, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a non-profit that certified organic cotton, finally ceased all operations in Xinjiang. British retailers Marks & Spencer and ASOS, and a handful of other brands, committed to redirecting their supply chains away from Xinjiang cotton and all factories across China using forced labor. If a few more large brands sign on, it will have the potential to make a real dent in the profitability of Uyghur forced labor.
Yet too many companies are buckling under a Chinese government intimidation campaigns. According to Human Rights Watch, "Inditex, which owns Zara, has removed a statement explaining its policies against forced labor; PVH has done the same. [As has] VF Corporation." Fila, an Italian sportswear manufacturer, stated [[link removed]] that it would continue to use Xinjiang cotton.
Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
Read the Op-Ed [[link removed]]
Go Deeper
Read [[link removed]]
Her Uyghur Friend Disappeared. Now this Boston Woman is on a Mission to Draw Attention to China's 'Genocide' [[link removed]]
About five years ago, a doctor and medical researcher named Imamjan Ibrahim left Boston for Xinjiang, China, to visit his parents. He never returned. In USA Today, journalist Deirdre Shesgreen tracks attempts by family and friends—including Hudson's Nury Turkel—to determine whether Ibrahim has been targeted by China's massive Uyghur incarceration campaign. "I was heartbroken to hear that he got caught up in this," said Turkel, who was born in a re-education camp during China's cultural revolution.
Read [[link removed]]
I Grew Up Witnessing Forced Labor. US Companies Must Step Up. [[link removed]]
Re-education camps and forced labor remain a gruesome reality affecting millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan, which China calls the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. These camps, despite the euphemism of “vocational training centers,” are far from vocational and never voluntary, writes Nury Turkel in the New York Times. To eliminate the use of Uyghur forced labor in their products, companies must respond creatively and proactively to address longstanding challenges they face with supply chain transparency.
Listen [[link removed]]
Genocide in China [[link removed]]
In a podcast interview with the Ronald Reagan Institute, Nury Turkel discusses the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide against the Uyghur people.
[[link removed]] Hudson Institute
1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Fourth Floor
Washington, D.C. 20004 Share [link removed] Tweet [link removed] Forward [link removed] Preferences [link removed] | Unsubscribe [link removed]
