Top US companies like Nike and Coca-Cola are lobbying Congress against passing a bill that will potentially prohibit broad categories of goods that were made by means of forced labour in China, particularly the Uyghur Muslim minorities, who have, for long, been facing oppression in China.
This bill is all set to be sanctioned to become a law by the leaving Trump government or the incoming Biden government, having received a vast majority of votes in favour of it since September.
Called the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the bill is being opposed by major companies like Nike, Coca-Cola and Apple Inc. It should also be noted that as per a report issued in March this year, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China had listed Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Calvin Klein, Campbell Soup Company, Costco, H&M, Patagonia Tommy Hilfiger and several others as companies suspected of ties with forced labour in Xinjiang.
Xinjiang produces vast amounts of raw materials like cotton, coal, sugar, tomatoes and polysilicon, and supplies workers for China’s apparel and footwear factories. Human rights groups and news reports have linked many multinational companies to suppliers there, including tying Coca-Cola to sugar sourced from Xinjiang and documenting Uighur workers in a factory in Qingdao that makes Nike shoes.