Big Brands Face a $110 billion dilemma with the Beijing Olympics
In response to questions from Bloomberg about involvement in the 2022 Olympics, Omega said: “As a global brand, we are certainly aware of international tensions and monitor them carefully.… We sincerely believe that the Olympic Games is a perfect opportunity to meet on common ground in the spirit of unity.” Airbnb told Bloomberg that, “We believe China is an important part of our mission to connect people from around the world and from different backgrounds, now more than ever.”
Olympics Sponsors in Spotlight as Games Loom
The International Olympic Committee’s major corporate sponsors should explain publicly how they are using their leverage to address human rights abuses in China ahead of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, Human Rights Watch said today. Sponsors should also press the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to adopt a human rights policy to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for any adverse human rights impacts across all Olympic operations and events, including for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
Winter Olympics top sponsors ‘silent’ over China’s human rights record
Corporate sponsors of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have been accused of “squandering the opportunity” to pressure China to address its “appalling human rights record”. The Games’ top level sponsors, including Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Procter & Gamble, Intel and Visa, were on Friday accused of ignoring China’s alleged “crimes against humanity against Uyghurs” and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang as well the repression of free speech in Hong Kong.
Swedish Ericsson connected to forced labor factory in China
New evidence shows that the Swedish networking and telecommunications company Ericsson has been doing business with a Chinese factory accused of using the Uighur Muslims minority for forced labor. Swedish media GT has uncovered hidden documents that show that Ericsson has been a customer at the criticized factory.
US electronics firm struck deal to transport and hire Uyghur workers
U.S. remote-control maker Universal Electronics Inc (UEIC.O) told Reuters it struck a deal with authorities in Xinjiang to transport hundreds of Uyghur workers to its plant in the southern Chinese city of Qinzhou, the first confirmed instance of an American company participating in a transfer program described by some rights groups as forced labor.
German companies accused of profiting from forced Uighur Muslim labour in China
Several German companies have been accused of "profiting" from the forced labour of Uyghur Muslims in China. The allegation was made by the Berlin-based NGO, The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). High-profile brands including clothing chains Hugo Boss and C&A, and the discount chains Lidl, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud were named in the complaint.
Levi's Vacates Better Cotton Initiative Board Seat. Is Xinjiang to blame?
Levi Strauss’s sustainability czar has exited the board of the Better Cotton Initiative, cutting short a four-year term that was scheduled to end next year, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people close to the matter. BCI, which declined to “provide input on this topic,” updated its website early Friday to strike Levi’s from its so-called BCI Council. BCI’s leadership, members of the Geneva-based not-for-profit told the Wall Street Journal, remains deeply divided over its response to suspected human-rights abuses, including forced labor, in China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
US Tech Products Enable Chinese Surveillance in Xinjiang, Researchers Find
U.S. technology companies are still supplying China’s surveillance state with equipment and software for monitoring populations and censoring information, including in the Xinjiang region, despite damning revelations that have led to genocide accusations against Beijing, according to researchers.
In the midst of the Uyghur scandal, the managing director of Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot resigns
The SMCP group, which owns the Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot brands, has just announced the departure of its managing director Daniel Lalonde. If the textile giant says that his resignation has “nothing to do” with the scandal of the Uyghurs, the group is nevertheless facing a crisis. In early July, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation targeting him for “concealing a crime against humanity”.