Yesterday, my PJ Media colleague Tyler O’Neill presented a convincing case that the Chinese Communists are the closest analog to Hitler and the Nazis in the world today. Tyler’s thesis is that liberals are hysterical about Trump when they should be angry at Chinese Communist President Xi Jinping for being the true fascist dictator.
Tyler also highlighted the ghastly plight of the minority Uighurs in China, that the reds just can’t abide them because they worship Allah and not the Communist Party. But as the rest of the world has been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic these past few months, China has been busy eliminating the Uighur “threat” while, at the same time, enriching themselves and numerous Western corporations by putting the million or so Uighurs they’ve incarcerated to work growing and harvesting the cotton that goes into everything from Gap jeans to Adidas jerseys.
If that sounds like slave labor to you, you’re correct. And like Hitler and the Nazis, the corporations are either turning away from the atrocity or deliberately remaining ignorant about what’s happening.
But calls are growing among human rights groups and NGOs for these corporations to stop profiting from human misery and cut ties with the Communists.
A coalition of labor unions and NGOs on Thursday urged clothing brands and retailers not to exploit labor from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in China.
The organizations called on brands to stop sourcing from the Xinjiang region within 12 months.
“The only way brands can ensure they are not profiting from the exploitation is by exiting the region and ending relationships with suppliers propping up this Chinese government system,” Jasmine O’Connor, head of Anti-Slavery International, said in a statement.
China is the world’s biggest supplier of cotton and 84 percent of that product comes from the Uighurs’ home region. One in five products made of cotton around the world is sourced to that region. No doubt cutting ties with the Communists will cost these corporations a lot of money, but the list of companies that use Chinese Communist cotton is full of some of the most “woke” corporations in America.
They include Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas, Amazon, Calvin Klein, Gap, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Nike, Patagonia, Tommy Hilfiger, Victoria’s Secret, and Zara. The full list can be seen here.
“Virtually the entire apparel industry is tainted by forced Uyghur and Turkic Muslim labor,” the groups said, using an alternative spelling for Uighurs.
Recall when North Carolina banned boys from girls’ bathrooms and several corporations tried to punish the state by not moving headquarters there or refusing to hold concerts and major events.
Standing up for transgenders’ rights to pee wherever they wish is more important than profiting from forced labor?
Corporate hypocrisy has never been more evident. While supporting the radical militants of Black Lives Matter, and punishing employees who disagree with them, the atrocity of torturing and incarcerating people because of their religion is apparently just fine — as long as the money keeps rolling in.
Some of the listed corporations are claiming ignorance or saying they’ll get on it right away.
In a statement reported in The Guardian, PVH Corporation, the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, denied it sourced finished products from Xinjiang. PVH added that it would end all commercial links with factories and mills, or use cotton grown, in Xinjiang in the next year.
Ikea told The Independent [it] would stop sourcing cotton from Xinjiang.
H&M told The Guardian it had an indirect partnership with a yarn producer operating in Xinjiang, and that it is reviewing its work with it.
There are many unlovely things about China and this is just about the ugliest.
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