Hong Kong
Hong Kong apparel
giant Esquel Group is reportedly planning to sue the US government for putting
a false allegation of erroneous blacklisting of a subsidiary in China’s
Xinjiang region. The US government has said that the group has made use of
forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region on which the group has said that there
is no supporting evidence to prove this allegation.
The American government had declared Xiaomi a Communist Chinese
Military Company and hence it has been de-listed from the US exchanges. Esquel
Group’s suit came after Xiaomi sued the US government and it agreed to remove
Xiaomi from the blacklist.
As per the group, there have been many audits by third-party
independent auditors using internationally recognized industry standards that
involved site visits, which further led to interviews with Uyghur workers in
Xinjiang factories. As per the company, the audits found no evidence of forced
labour. It was also noticed that the Changji Esquel facility is automated and
technologically advanced, and requires highly skilled workers. All this is
technically the reverse of a business model that relies on underpaid or forced labour.
Esquel Group is one of those companies that has been targeted due to
tensions between the US and China over issues related to human rights, span
trade, and territorial disputes.
Source – The Straits Times
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