As a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur, I am saddened to learn that the Chinese Government are forcing Uyghur people to work in factories that supply Nike. We ask Tottenham Hotspur to put public pressure on Nike to investigate this and provide proof that no forced labour has been used in the manufacture of any of their products.

Putting pressure on companies like Nike is essential to end Uyghur re-education camps and forced labour because they have the power to investigate conditions in their factories and press for better working conditions and an end to exploitation.

From the linked report by the thinktank Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

"In January 2020, around 600 ethnic minority workers from Xinjiang were employed at Qingdao Taekwang Shoes Co. Ltd (青岛泰光制鞋有限公司). Taekwang’s primary customer is the American multinational company Nike Incorporated. The Xinjiang workers are mostly Uyghur women from Hotan and Kashgar prefectures, which are remote parts of southern Xinjiang that the Chinese government has described as ‘backward’ and ‘disturbed by religious extremism’.

At the factory, the Uyghur labourers make Nike shoes during the day. In the evening, they attend a night school where they study Mandarin, sing the Chinese national anthem and receive ‘vocational training’ and ‘patriotic education’. The curriculum closely mirrors that of Xinjiang’s ‘re-education camps’.

The sprawling Taekwang factory compound is located in Laixi City, to the north of Qingdao in China’s Shandong province, and is owned by the Taekwang Group, a South Korean chemical and textile conglomerate (chaebol). Taekwang’s Laixi factory is one of the largest manufacturers of shoes for Nike, producing more than seven million pairs for the American brand annually."

Image taken from the ASPI reort. Credit: Yip Wong.