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Apple among 83 global brands using Uighur Muslim 'forced labour' in factories

39 points by ideals 6y ago

throwaway888abc 6y ago
Full report: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale and full pdf https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/ad-aspi/2020-06/Uyghurs%20for%20sale-05JUN20.pdf?gLsFgI8LmxiW__bfX8GZjgtHpA9dcK30= https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/ad-aspi/2020-06/Uygh...
100721 6y ago
Curious why Samsung and Sony were pulled out of the headline? Surely people aren’t convinced that Apple is the only corporation in the world with questionable things in their supply chain.
- zepto 6y ago
  Yes - dang, this is clearly a misleading headline. Please can we have it updated?
  - zepto 6y ago
    Yes - dang, this is clearly a misleading headline. Please can we have it updated? Actually even the full headline is misleading. The impression is given that Apple, Sony, and Samsung directly used the forced labor rather than simply buying things from suppliers who did. This doesn’t absolve them of responsibility for preventing this now that they know, but it isn’t what the headline says.
    - ponsin 6y ago
      Using that logic a similarly valid headline would be "iPhone (and Samsung and Sony phone) owners using Uighur Muslim forced labour in factories", which while probably true, isn't that surprising.
verdverm 6y ago
I'm surprised this isn't a bigger deal for people, more the essentially concentration camps. Any ideas why that is?
- subaru_shoe 6y ago
  I think it is a big deal but short of going to war what do you think will cause china to change their ways? sanctions don’t do much. stop buying from china? good luck with that.
  - verdverm 6y ago
    Not buying from them is the plan, along with oil from anyone. Long term I see this happening, almost inevitable at this point. All you have to do is shut down the shipping lanes and stop the import of energy. We could do that from 1000s of miles away, far out of the reach of their navy. Of course they could go nuclear... The best strategy is continued and increasing isolation of a bad actor, it will take time but they know they are looking out, seeing trouble ahead, and realizing how dependent they are on the US for survival. The changing opinions here is worrying them.
- _bxg1 6y ago
  At an individual level, China is very good at keeping things on the down-low, keeping out reporters, etc, so I don't think there's a lot of mainstream awareness of the problem. At a nation-state level, the sad truth is that the west didn't enter World War 2 because of the concentration camps. Appeasement was tried right up until Hitler made it clear he didn't intend to stop his conquest after being handed Czechoslovakia on a silver platter. The upperclass was perfectly happy to let him continue doing whatever he wanted within his own country. And China, at least for the foreseeable future, seems much more interested in economic domination than a land war, so it may never provoke true pushback. The U.S. is still pretty unhappy, of course, because it would mean directly supplanting us as the dominant economic power. But the rest of the first-world seems content to wait on the sidelines for a clear winner to emerge, and then to throw in with said winner. I wish I could say humanity is better than this, but, I can't.

39 points by ideals 6y ago

Full report: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale and full pdf https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/ad-aspi/2020-06/Uyghurs%20for%20sale-05JUN20.pdf?gLsFgI8LmxiW__bfX8GZjgtHpA9dcK30= https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/ad-aspi/2020-06/Uygh...

100721 6y ago

Curious why Samsung and Sony were pulled out of the headline? Surely people aren’t convinced that Apple is the only corporation in the world with questionable things in their supply chain.

zepto 6y ago
Yes - dang, this is clearly a misleading headline. Please can we have it updated?
- zepto 6y ago
  Yes - dang, this is clearly a misleading headline. Please can we have it updated? Actually even the full headline is misleading. The impression is given that Apple, Sony, and Samsung directly used the forced labor rather than simply buying things from suppliers who did. This doesn’t absolve them of responsibility for preventing this now that they know, but it isn’t what the headline says.
  - ponsin 6y ago
    Using that logic a similarly valid headline would be "iPhone (and Samsung and Sony phone) owners using Uighur Muslim forced labour in factories", which while probably true, isn't that surprising.

verdverm 6y ago

I'm surprised this isn't a bigger deal for people, more the essentially concentration camps. Any ideas why that is?

subaru_shoe 6y ago
I think it is a big deal but short of going to war what do you think will cause china to change their ways? sanctions don’t do much. stop buying from china? good luck with that.
- verdverm 6y ago
  Not buying from them is the plan, along with oil from anyone. Long term I see this happening, almost inevitable at this point. All you have to do is shut down the shipping lanes and stop the import of energy. We could do that from 1000s of miles away, far out of the reach of their navy. Of course they could go nuclear... The best strategy is continued and increasing isolation of a bad actor, it will take time but they know they are looking out, seeing trouble ahead, and realizing how dependent they are on the US for survival. The changing opinions here is worrying them.
_bxg1 6y ago
At an individual level, China is very good at keeping things on the down-low, keeping out reporters, etc, so I don't think there's a lot of mainstream awareness of the problem. At a nation-state level, the sad truth is that the west didn't enter World War 2 because of the concentration camps. Appeasement was tried right up until Hitler made it clear he didn't intend to stop his conquest after being handed Czechoslovakia on a silver platter. The upperclass was perfectly happy to let him continue doing whatever he wanted within his own country. And China, at least for the foreseeable future, seems much more interested in economic domination than a land war, so it may never provoke true pushback. The U.S. is still pretty unhappy, of course, because it would mean directly supplanting us as the dominant economic power. But the rest of the first-world seems content to wait on the sidelines for a clear winner to emerge, and then to throw in with said winner. I wish I could say humanity is better than this, but, I can't.