One of the consequences of President Clinton\u2019s granting China Most Favored Nation status and allowing them to become a member of the World Trade Organization is that China took over production of consumer goods previously made in the USA. As a result, the consumer products you buy that are \u201cMade in China\u201d may be made by slave labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nGlobal Slavery Index<\/a> published by\nthe Minderoo Foundation \u201cestimates that on any given day in 2016 there were\nover 3.8 million people living in conditions of modern slavery in China, a\nprevalence of 2.8 victims for every thousand people in the country. This\nestimate does not include figures on organ trafficking\u2026Much of its rapid\neconomic development has been the result of a domestic economy specialising in\nthe production of labour-intensive, cheap goods for export. Forced labour\nmainly occurs in the production of these goods, including in the manufacturing\nand construction sectors, as well as in more informal industries…,Other\nlabour-intensive industries in China are also creating a demand for low-paid\nforeign labour. The sugarcane industry in China\u2019s southern Guangxi province\nattracts an estimated 50,000 illegal Vietnamese workers. Factory towns in\nSouthern China have been found to employ illegal workers from Vietnam on a\nwidespread basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nIndex commented that \u201cThe Chinese government officially announced in November\n2013 that it would abolish the Re-education through Labour (RTL) System, in\nwhich inmates were held and routinely subjected to forced labour for up to four\nyears. However, a 2017 report by the US-China Economic and Security Review\nCommission alleges that China still maintains a network of state detention\nfacilities that use forced labour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\npurpose of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission is to\nmonitor, investigate, and submit to congress an annual report on the national\nsecurity implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between\nthe United States and China, and to provide recommendations to Congress. If you\nread a chapter or two from any of the reports from 2017 \u2013 2019, you would\nrealize that Congress is not doing enough to address the threats China poses to\nthe U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nthe staff research report<\/a>, \u201cU.S.\nExposure to Forced Labor Exports from China,\u201d Alexander Bowe, Research Fellow,\nwrite, \u201cChina maintains a network of prison labor facilities that use forced\nlabor* to produce goods intended for export\u2014a violation of U.S.-China trade\nagreements and U.S. law. U.S. officials continue to face considerable\ndifficulty in combating exports of these forced labor products, since\ncooperation from Chinese interlocutors has remained at low levels for years. U.S.\nImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have not been permitted to\nmake site inspections in China since 2009\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an article<\/a> on\nJune 11, 2019, the Epoch Times reported, \u201cIn undercover footage shot inside China\u2019s notorious Masanjia\nlabor camp, prisoners are shown hunched over work tables, with piles of wire\ndiodes\u2014an electronic component\u2014on either side of a rubber mat. They do this\nwork 15 hours a day, while being fed subsistence meals and receiving a pittance\nor no pay at all. Some inmates, exhausted, are shown lying down to sleep under\ntheir work tables.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another Epoch Times article<\/a> of August 25, 2020, states,\n\u201cFor three years on and off, Li Dianqin worked for about 17 hours a day making\ncheap clothing\u2014from bras to trousers\u2014in a Chinese prison. She worked for no pay\nand faced punishment by prison guards if she failed to meet production quotas. One\ntime, a team of about 60 workers who couldn\u2019t reach their quota were forced to\nwork for three days straight, not allowed to eat or go to the bathroom. The\nguards would shock the prisoners with electric batons whenever they dozed off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On\nMarch 1, 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute released a report<\/a> that stated, \u201cSince 2017, more than a million Uyghurs and members\nof other Turkic Muslim minorities have disappeared into a vast network of\n\u2018re-education camps\u2019 in the far west region of Xinjiang\u2026This report estimates\nthat more than 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang to work in\nfactories across China between 2017 and 2019, and some of them were sent\ndirectly from detention camps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nreport explains, \u201cUnder conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uyghurs\nare working in factories that are in the supply chains of at least\n82 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive\nsectors\u2026\u201d The whole list is too long to\npublish in this short article, but it includes: Amazon, Apple, BMW, Calvin\nKlein, Carter\u2019s, Cisco, Dell, General Motors, Google, Hitachi, HP, L.L.Bean, Mercedes-Benz,\nMicrosoft, Mitsubishi, Nike, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, Samsung,\nSharp, Siemens, Skechers, Sony, Toshiba, Victoria\u2019s Secret, and Volkswagen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nis noted that \u201cASPI reached out to these 82 brands to confirm their\nrelevant supplier details. Where companies responded before publication, we\nhave included their relevant clarifications in this report. If any company\nresponses are made available after publication of the report, we will address\nthese online\u2026a small number of brands advised they have instructed their\nvendors to terminate their relationships with these suppliers in 2020.\u201d The\nfull report can be downloaded here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On\nAugust 13, 2020, The New York Times updated a visual investigation revealing\nthat \u201cAs the coronavirus pandemic continues to drive demand for personal\nprotective equipment, Chinese companies are rushing to manufacture the gear for\ndomestic and global consumption. A New York Times visual investigation has found<\/a> that some of those companies are using Uighur labor through a\ncontentious government-sponsored program that experts say often puts people to\nwork against their will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nnext time you are ready to buy an article of clothing or a pair of shoes \u201cMade\nin China,\u201d think about what the working conditions were like for the workers\nwho made these items. Remember that\n\u201cMade in China\u201d could mean being made in prison by slaves or forced\nlabor at private companies. Avoid buying from online websites as much as\npossible as current law doesn\u2019t require information on where a product is made.\nChoose to buy Made in USA whenever possible. Take a look at the variety of\nproducts available at these websites: www.madeinamericastore.com<\/a>,\nwww.buydirectUSA.com<\/a>,\nand of course, www.themadeinamericamovement.com<\/a>,\nwhich publishes my articles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the consequences of President Clinton\u2019s granting China Most Favored Nation status and allowing them to become a member of the World Trade Organization is that China took over production of consumer goods previously made in the USA. As a result, the consumer products you buy that are \u201cMade in China\u201d may be made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[279,278,276,60],"class_list":["post-1005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-forced-labor","tag-made-in-china","tag-made-in-usa","tag-manufacturing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1005"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1008,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005\/revisions\/1008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}