Floor coverings from forced labor sold on the North American market?

British researchers say in a new study that there is a “very high risk” that floor coverings ending up on the North American market will be produced partly thanks to the forced labor of Uyghurs.

Marc Thibodeau
The Press

The authors of the report Built on Repression from Sheffield Hallam University, UK, note that the Autonomous Region of Xinjiang has in recent years become a major center for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by taking advantage of the abundance of natural resources and large-scale exploitation of members of this Muslim minority.

A significant fraction of PVC resins from the region are exported elsewhere in China and across the border in Asia to be used in the manufacture of various products, including floor coverings, which then end up on the international market.

PVC made in Xinjiang is “so inexpensive that it has become the most common material for all flooring sold in the United States,” the authors point out.

The situation, which recalls the problems arising from the production in the Chinese region of cotton, tomatoes and solar panels, greatly complicates the task of foreign distributors and consumers wishing to rule out any purchase of products potentially linked to forced labor.

“A lot of companies are happy to pass this responsibility on to their direct suppliers, but that’s not enough. They have to try to monitor their entire supply chain in a much more comprehensive way,” emphasizes Laura B. Murphy, a professor at Sheffield Hallam University who co-authored the study.

In support of their warnings, the researchers cite in particular the case of a Chinese state firm, Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemical, which produces more than 2 million tonnes of PVC per year.

A “training” with a pronounced ideological component

The firm, note M^me Murphy, has been actively involved in recent years in transferring more than 5,000 “surplus workers” from religious minorities, mostly Uyghurs, who have been trained to work in his factories. She has also publicly welcomed the “political” importance of this program.

The people targeted have no choice but to comply with these transfers if they want to avoid detention and often find themselves, says the professor, living hundreds of kilometers from their residence in dormitories after suffering a ” training” with a pronounced ideological component.

Among them, many are exposed, underlines the report, to significant risks for their health since the PVC production factories use a very polluting process based on coal and mercury which is very harmful for the environment.

By studying international trade registers, the researchers noted that a large fraction of the PVC produced by Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemical is sent to a Vietnamese firm that supplies floor coverings to more than a dozen American importers.

Home Depot under the magnifying glass

Among these floors, they say, include certain products sold at Home Depot under the name “Lifeproof”.

A Home Depot spokeswoman, Sara Gorman, said Wednesday via email to The Press that the company was carefully monitoring its supply chains to exclude any use of forced labor and was “currently working with its suppliers” to shed full light on the allegations contained in the report.

Companies with direct or indirect ties to suppliers in Xinjiang are likely to experience growing difficulties in the United States, which has just implemented a law requiring importers of products from part or all of the region to prove that they do not result from the use of forced labour.

Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemical, which prides itself online as the largest PVC producer in China, did not respond to questions from The Press.

A Chinese daily on the offensive

The state daily China Daily attacked the findings of the Sheffield Hallam University researchers in a lengthy article in early July alleging their work is part of a Western-orchestrated smear campaign.

The article ensures that the labor migration program can in no way be considered a form of “slavery” or “forced labour” and refers to the fact that the people who participate in it receive a higher salary to the regional average.

M^me Murphy notes that remuneration, when it exists, is often illusory since the firms appropriate a non-negligible part of these sums to cover food, accommodation or transport.

Threats to members of ethnic minorities who refuse to participate also give, she says, an undeniably coercive character to the program corresponding to the international definition of forced labor.

Louisa Greve, an activist with the Uyghur Human Rights Project, says the Chinese authorities’ denials have “no credibility” and ignores the fact that the regime sees the factory placement of Uyghurs as a way of indoctrinating and controlling them .

“If the forced-to-migrate workers are so happy, China should let foreign observers come to ask them. The region is hermetically locked,” notes Mr.^me Strike.

An expected report

The guidelines imposed on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, during a visit to the region in May testify, she says, to the lack of transparency of the local authorities.

M^me Bachelet, who is nearing the end of his term, is due to release a long-awaited report on China’s treatment of Uyghurs shortly.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Beijing is trying to block the report’s release and is circulating a letter in diplomatic circles expressing “serious concern” about it.