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Now post the next 3 paragraphs after those quotes. Apple is actively doing business in a location where slavery is frequently occurring, while pretending that
by daenz 6y ago
Now post the next 3 paragraphs after those quotes.
Apple is actively doing business in a location where slavery is frequently occurring, while pretending that their audits are thorough and comprehensive so that their hands appear clean. But the fact that they are playing whack-a-mole with constant slavery reports should be evidence enough that they know exactly what they're doing: they're trying to turn a profit while turning a blind eye to abuses, so long as they don't happen too publicly, and don't directly implicate them. This is wrong.
- simonh 6y agoIt looks like it may well be going that way, sure, but making this about Apple is headline bait. It's about China. The fact is you can't buy a single thing made in China and be sure it isn't implicated in this in some way. Think of the last few things you bought that were manufactured or sourced some parts in China. Can you honestly say the manufacturer audits their supply chain with the same rigour? At least Apple is trying to keep their supply chain clean, but ultimately that may prove to be impossible. If that's the case vilifying Apple for it won't fix it, the only way to fix it will be to shun Chinese products completely, but that's going to be a very painful and difficult process for more people than just Apple. Take Fairphone for example, those guys work really hard to do the right thing as much as possible, but they have dozens and dozens of suppliers in China some of them indirect. In their own literature they point out they can't answer for every single supplier. This is a really tough problem.
- hobs 6y agoSo we shouldnt shame the richest company on earth for using slave labor because its about "china"? If anyone has leverage, its Apple, so actually yes its a way to start fixing the problem. There's a simple way to keep slave labor out of your supply chain, stop doing business with people who are fine with that, not "performing audits to find out they are using slave labor again so we switched!"
- simonh 6y agoHow do you know which supplier is "fine with that", and how do you anticipate a supplier before they decide to change over to using illegitimate labour? Auditing suppliers, verifying supply chains and switching away from cheaters is one way to address the issue. Another is to not do business in China at all.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y agoNot to defend Apple specifically - but do you really think it's just Apple? Maximising downward pressure on wages - as an economist might label this - is the natural, predictable, desired outcome of globalisation.
- kortilla 6y ago>So we shouldnt shame the richest company on earth for using slave labor because its about "china"? No, that’s a convenient misdirection to avoid real change. By making it “Apple is evil”, people just switch to another phone manufactured in China and pat themselves on the back for doing absolutely nothing.
- WillPostForFood 6y agoIt would be easier to just not do any business with any company in Xinjiang, but is that actually punishing the Uighur community who aren’t part of the forced labor? It might be better to focus the pressure on China as a whole, and at the international level. Or it might be more effective to punish companies in Beijing because they have the ear of the government.
- simonh 6y agoThis isn't in Xinjiang, it's suppliers in other parts of China that apparently had Uighur labourers sent out to them.