According to recent research by ASPI (Australian Strategic Policy Institute), the 83 multinationals including Adidas, Apple, Samsung, Nike, and Microsoft are known to be linked with the labor forcing of the Uighurs in the factories throughout China.
Uighurs are the persecuted ethnicity-based minority belonging from the Xinjiang region in China. They have been funneled to work the factories of various states under strongly emphasizing on forced labor, as claimed by the researchers.
Even though the journalists have linked in the past the same act by Western companies, this tends to be the first time when issue progressed on a large scale by revealing the supply chains and factories of the whole country.
The 83 organizations (foreign and Chinese) which are identified by the ASPI as indirectly or directly profiting from the potentials of offensive transfers plans concerning the Uighurs.
Under the central government policy of “Xinjiang Aid”, Uighurs placement within the factories took place outside the Xinjiang area. For every Uighur labor they employ with them, the factory owner earns cash compensations.
Few firms have even marketed that they can provide Uighur workers with the help of online bookings. One of these ads has claimed to provide 1000 Uighur workers aging 16 to 18 years old.
In their ad, they have emphasized that the Uighurs labor would provide various work styles and quality work to their owners. Though the state media claims that they compensate the Uighur workers, yet the researchers of ASPI observed that these workers live in isolated dormitories.
They also aren’t allowed to go home and also go through ideological and Mandarin training sessions separate from their working hours likewise Uighurs from the internment camps.
Few of the brands; Bosch, Panasonic, Adidas, Nike, and others, shared with ASPI that do not preserve any direct and contract-based links with these suppliers stated above, however, deep down in their supply chain, no link can be ruled out by anyone.
