This is very disturbing to see.
BY BROOKE SEIPEL
One man has been arrested and two others are missing after investigating working conditions at a Chinese company that produces Ivanka Trump-brand shoes, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The three men were working with China Labor Watch, a New York-based nonprofit, which was reportedly planning to publish a report next month alleging low pay and excessive overtime use by the Chinese company.
According the Associated Press, Hua Haifeng was arrested and accused of illegal surveillance. China Labor Watch said it lost touch with the other two men, Li Zhao and Su Heng, over the weekend.
Labor and Human Right’s activists have faced a lot of repression in China, and as of January 1st 2017 China’s draconian Foreign NGO Management Law took effect.
The Foreign NGO Management Law was due to come into force on 1 January 2017, creating additional barriers to the already limited rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression. Although the law was ostensibly designed to regulate and even protect the activities of foreign NGOs, it transferred to the Ministry of Public Security – the state policing agency – the responsibility to oversee the registration of these NGOs, as well as supervise their operations and pre-approve their activities. The wide discretion given to police to oversee and manage the work of foreign NGOs raised the risk of the law being misused to intimidate and prosecute human rights defenders and NGO staff.
UPDATE:
The DNC is weighing in on this:
“For years, Ivanka Trump has ignored public reports of awful labor conditions at a factory that makes her shoes,” Adrienne Watson, the DNC’s deputy communications director Adrienne Watson said in a statement. “Now, she must decide whether she can ignore the Chinese government’s apparent attempt to silence an investigation into those worker abuses."
“Ivanka’s brand should immediately cease its work with this supplier, and the Trump administration should reverse its current course and confront China on its human rights abuses," she added.