this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2024
201 points (92.8% liked)

News

23014 readers
6 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I agree. That’s also terrible. They work mostly in farming. If you can avoid these food brands, I suggest you do so.

There are plenty of automobiles manufactured in the US, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and the UK that don’t use forced labor. I also recommend supporting those factories instead of China.

Also, your second link about Chinese retirement has nothing to do with Uyghur slave labor.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There are plenty of automobiles manufactured in the US, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and the UK

And they're all complicit. BMW, Volkswagon, Jaguar Land Rover all source parts from China.

In fact, the entire US supply chain is reliant on Chinese parts.

Earlier this month, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) said it would be temporarily halting production at a plant in Kragujevac, Serbia due to a lack of parts from China, while Hyundai and Renault have done the same in South Korea.

You can whitewash your supply chain by slapping an western label on Chinese parts. But this isn't demonstrating any kind of concern for labor rights or ethical insourcing. FFS, we won't even let Volkswagon plants in Tennessee unionize.

Nevermind Uyghur slave labor. Americans can't even bargain for better salaries. Its too much for our fragile economy to handle.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That was true of those brands. They’ve since been pulling out of China, leaving abandoned factories that are now being used by the Chinese market. There are still plenty of other ethical options for automobiles.

Many nations are cracking down on imports related to Uyghur labor.

In December 2021, Congress passed, and President Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) – the strongest tool the United States or any other country has forged in the fight against the atrocities of forced labor.

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2024/05/23/enforcing-uyghur-forced-labor-prevention-act

https://www.politico.eu/article/china-forced-labor-ban-europe-us-uyghur-xinjiang/

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

They’ve since been pulling out of China

Firstly, no they haven't. US trade with China has only ever increased year-over-year going back to the 1960s.

Secondly, our hunger for cheap labor is sending us to penal colonies across the rest of the Pacific Rim. This isn't something that began or ended with a single factory in a single country.

Many nations are cracking down on imports related to Uyghur labor.

They're not. The business is just being laundered through front companies.

Upon the review of the ASPI report, Skechers said it contacted senior management at Luzhou prior to conducting two additional audits of the factory — none of which revealed any indications of forced labor. Luzhou, however, did confirm that members of the Uyghur ethnic group did comprise a portion of its workforce but were employed under compliant terms and conditions.

Shoving thumbs in my ears and saying "I don't see the non-compliance, its all fine actually!" and letting the provisions go completely unenforced.

And that's before you get into direct sales through Ali Baba and Temu

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Again, I agree, but my comment was about automobiles. You have the habit of misrepresenting my point.

https://boydcoddingtonwheels.com/car-companies-pulling-out-of-china/

https://www.iwkoeln.de/en/studies/juergen-matthes-competitive-pressure-from-china-for-german-companies.html

https://www.ft.com/content/d88955d4-2bc8-476e-9cdb-882ca3c3b10d

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-lawmakers-press-automakers-cut-reliance-china-over-supply-chains-bloomberg-2023-06-19/

As for other consumer goods, Biden has expanded Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to include more imports.

https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/enforcement/section-301-investigations/tariff-actions

Tariffs aren’t great solutions, but the only alternative would be outright banning. The latter would have a sudden and financially profound impact on American consumers.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Again, I agree, but my comment was about automobiles.

Nearly 40% of Honda’s automobile production took place in China in the last financial year.

Honda would continue to keep its supply chain in China for the domestic market in the world’s second-largest economy while building a separate one for markets outside of China, the Sankei said. It did not say where it got the information.

That's not "pulling out of China". That's a sign of Chinese domestic automobile consumption rising.

Biden has expanded Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to include more imports.

I haven't seen much to suggest he's enforcing it. These laws are consistently toothless, in the same way more and more of our regulatory system is toothless.