WASHINGTON, 14 August. - (ANA) - This summer, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act took effect, restricting U.S. imports of products from the Xinjiang region of China, where a great deal of evidence reveals that the Chinese government has been imprisoning and otherwise persecuting the resident Uyghur ethnic minority, writes the Washington Post.

 

This law goes beyond previous attempts to address forced labor and what advocates call “modern slavery,” since it presumes that items linked to Xinjiang have been made with forced labor, unless importing companies can demonstrate otherwise.

 

Evidence shows that Uyghur Muslims are enduring wide-ranging repression from Chinese authorities, including forced migration and internment in what are called reeducation camps. Through both routes, Uyghur individuals have been coerced into producing cotton, tomatoes, electronic components and a variety of other materials destined for global markets, including polysilicon for solar panels.

 

Coming amid geopolitical conflicts, rising consumer prices, component shortages and a reconfiguration of global supply chains, the law’s consequences could be profound. Unlike many trade restrictions, this one is rooted not only in national rivalries but also in moral objections to human rights violations and repression of an ethno-religious minority, which the United States has called genocidal.

 

Our recently published research examines how Americans perceive bans of this sort — and reveals how corporate strategies to manage the risks of forced labor and maintain access to Chinese markets could, this time, have unanticipated consequences.

 

 

 

 

In the winter of 2020, we conducted an online survey experiment with a sample of approximately 4,500 U.S. residents. This was a national sample of adults, recruited from the survey firm Dynata’s opt-in panel with quotas used to approximate key characteristics of the U.S. population, including region, age, gender, income and education.

 

We had respondents read hypothetical scenarios — randomly assigned — that described different kinds of labor and environmental problems in global supply chains for clothing, electronics and seafood. These included forced labor, child labor, dangerous work, water pollution and toxic emissions. These scenarios also included hypothetical statements from corporations, which took a variety of approaches to voluntarily addressing these problems.

 

We then asked respondents whether and to what extent they supported a government-imposed ban on the sale of these items in the United States — in essence, the same action taken by this recent law.

 

 

 

 

Of all these social and environmental issues, respondents were especially likely to support import bans for products made with forced labor, which advocates call “modern slavery.” For instance, they were 19 percentage points more likely to support an import ban for products made with forced labor than those that involved “overuse of natural resources.” Only child labor, which has received focused attention from activists and policymakers for decades, got more interest in a ban — and that difference was negligible when we asked how strongly respondents supported a ban.

 

We also asked people to explain their judgments in their own words. They often used explicitly moral language to justify government intervention against forced labor. For example, one respondent called slave labor the “ultimate sin of a company.” Another wrote, “We must do everything possible to eliminate slavery around the world. This is so abhorrent — there is NO justification ever for slavery.” While child labor also elicited morally infused language, other problems — from dangerous work to water pollution — rarely did. Respondents seldom mentioned worries about protecting American jobs, although that’s often mentioned in public debates about international trade.

 

This suggests that the current politics of regulating certain harms in global supply chains, including forced labor, may be distinctive. They are animated not only by nationalism and overarching views of globalization’s economic effects, as emphasized in prior research, but also by explicitly moral concerns.

 

 

 

 

Of course, not everyone agreed that import bans are called for. Not surprisingly, conservatives were generally less likely to support this type of state intervention, although more of them were willing to support bans for forced labor than for most other problems.

 

 

 

 

Over the past two decades, companies have become increasingly active in policing their supply chains to address issues ranging from dangerous workplaces to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. And they proudly communicate these actions to consumers, shareholders and legislators.

 

When dealing with Xinjiang, however, companies have been much more circumspect about making such claims. This seems to be partly due to the practical difficulties of assessing conditions in Xinjiang and partly because the Chinese government aggressively denies that Uyghurs are being mistreated. When corporations have issued public statements about avoiding Xinjiang forced labor, Chinese consumers have responded by boycotting their products, likely encouraged by the Chinese government.

 

Our findings suggest that companies’ silence could inadvertently increase American support for government import bans on Xinjiang-made goods. In our study, when companies either had no comment or made general claims about ethics, charity and community, respondents were more likely to support government bans. As the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act begins to be enforced, companies may find it harder than expected to convince consumers that their hands are clean.   - (ANA) -

 

For the full article, visit: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/08/uyghur-modern-slavery-public-opinion/?mc_cid=6396c725bb&mc_eid=40d90e4282

 

AB/ANA/14 August 2022 — - -