Vietnamese exports are linked to Uyghur forced labor

After the U.S. government passed a law banning Chinese cotton and other products produced in Uyghur Autonomous Region, China continued to export semi-processed products in Xinjiang Cotton or Xinjiang Cotton to enterprises in Southeast Asian countries, from there to international brands. The case has recently drawn the attention of the Vietnamese Association of Democrats to the United States.

According to a report in the American Journal of Sources, the Vietnam Democracy Union has said that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security should pay close attention to products made in Southeast Asian countries, and that products exported by Vietnam may be linked to forced labor in Uyghur lands.

According to the Vietnam Democratic Union, the products exported to Vietnam are believed to be made from raw cotton or semi-processed cotton products imported from the Uyghur Autonomous Region. According to the organization, Vietnam is producing clothing for well-known brands such as Lewis, Adidas Canada, American Eagle, Calvin-Klein.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in December last year, banning Uyghur-related products from forced labor. The U.S. Congress has also recently set aside an additional $ 27 million budget for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to effectively enforce the law, which has been in effect since June this year.

According to the researchers, the US Customs Service should not allow any products related to Uyghur forced labor into the U.S. market in the supply chain of imported products. In an interview on March 30, Neurola Alima, a researcher at the Helenna Kennedy Center at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, said: That fact must be taken into account. "

According to Neurola Alima, after the United States passed a law banning Uyghur forced labor, China has taken a "cotton smuggling" route, such as exporting "Xinjiang cotton" products through other countries. “This is another pattern we have encountered since the U.S. government passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” said Neurola Alima. "After the United States government and customs did not allow Uyghur forced labor products, some companies smuggled raw materials produced in Uyghur forced labor for processing in other countries and then imported them into the United States."

This is not the first time the Vietnam Democratic Union in the United States has focused on the Uyghur issue. The organization also recently convened a large-scale international conference on the international response to the Uyghur Judiciary's decision on Uyghurs in London. The meeting was attended by more than 40 MPs from 11 countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, as well as representatives from more than 64 international organizations.

Sir Jeffrey Nice, Chief Justice of the Uyghur Judiciary in London, spoke at the meeting, outlining the legal and principled grounds for defining China's actions as "genocide" and "crimes against humanity." U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkel, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on China Affairs, spoke out against the U.S. Uyghur Labor Prevention Act, warning manufacturing companies in the Uyghur region that they would pay the price if they did not leave.

"We want to send a strong message to American consumers and to those who are not involved in this atrocity," said Jeff Merkey. But there is still more to be done. In terms of the scale of forced labor in Xinjiang, we have had to look at any product from the region with skepticism about forced labor. Our current law requires compliance with the standards and proof of the opposite. "Of course, I hope that the companies that continue to produce in the region will act quickly and leave the region immediately, and if they do not take advantage of the security gap in the law, then they will not be involved."

At the meeting, Merkel also called on other countries to legislate similarly to the United States, and said that more countries would take steps to address this issue, and play a more effective role in ending forced labor. "I urge governments around the world to do the same as we do in the United States," said Jeffrey Merkel. This is because of the fact that more and more governments are adopting similar strategies. So when I come back, I encourage you to take a look at our Uyghur Labor Law and consider a similar law in your country. "

This is not the first time the U.S. government has warned that China is importing "Xinjiang cotton" products to the U.S. market through Southeast Asia. Earlier, the Helenna Kennedy Center at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK released a survey report stating that China was evading US sanctions on "Xinjiang cotton" products through "cotton smuggling".

Neurola Alima, a researcher at the Helenna Kennedy Center, told us in an interview that the incident underscores the importance of transparency in the supply chain. "It simply came to our notice then. That fact must be taken into account. "

The Vietnamese Union of Democrats said that cotton and semi-processed cotton products produced in the Uyghur Autonomous Region were being "smuggled" through Vietnam, which could put brands such as Gap and Levi's in a difficult position. In the past, some organizations in France and the Netherlands have filed lawsuits alleging that some well-known international brands were complicit in China's forced Uyghur labor.