This article was published last year as "83 global companies with factories in China are forcing Uyghurs living in Xinjiang to work. This article is based on a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). The 83 global companies included in the report by ASPI include Adidas, Nike, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, BMW, General Motors (GM), Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Apple, while the Japanese companies include Hitachi, Japan Display, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. Japan Display, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsumi Electric, Nintendo, Panasonic, Sony, TDK, Toshiba, Fast Retailing, and Sharp.
Since the announcement, companies such as Patagonia, a major apparel brand in the U.S., H&M, a major clothing company in Sweden, and M&S, a major retail company in the U.K., have announced measures such as withdrawal or suspension of transactions. In addition, the governments of the U.S., U.K., Canada, and other countries have announced a series of measures including a ban on imports of cotton products.
Therefore, looking at what has been reported in the past, there are now a total of 14 companies that are supposed to stop trading: one in the US, one in Sweden, one in the UK, and 11 in Japan. (There may be some omissions in the companies that have announced.) This shows that most of the global companies are from emerging countries that have close ties with China. The New York Times also reported that major U.S. companies such as Nike and Coca-Cola are lobbying against a bill being considered by the U.S. Congress to contain forced labor in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Panasonic is disappointed. I must say that they lack the speed as a responsible company or business. But The Japan Uyghur Association called them on January 29th and urged them to respond, not exactly because they refused, but because they did not respond within the deadline. The person who answered the phone said that he would tell the department in charge and this news was reported on February 12.
Since we are concerned about human rights violations in the Uyghur Autonomous Region, I think we should not limit ourselves to Japanese companies, but send this question to private companies in other countries as an open question in the media news. Of course, there may be different human rights NGOs working in other countries to conduct that survey, but if there is duplication, we will just get the same answers.
I support the Japan Uyghur Association and I will never forgive China's human rights violation that can be called genocide, but according to Jernigan Global, which researches global cotton production, 84% of Chinese cotton, which accounts for about 20% of the world market, is Xinjiang cotton. This is something that can be blamed on Japanese companies by name, but it favors emerging companies that are closer to China and global companies with large market capitalization.
If I were to give advice to Japan Uyghur Association, it would be to think about how to deal with Kyodo News, companies that seem to be working for China and NGOs that have not said anything about human rights violation by China until now. It makes no sense to target the demand for rejection of produced cotton only to Japanese companies. Think carefully about who decided to send the questionnaire only to Japanese companies.
Kyodo News articles are always strange.