China joins treaty against forced labor – Green politician describes move as “cynical”

Created: 04/20/2022, 16:41

By: Sven Hauberg

The picture, released by the state news agency Xinhua, shows workers at a factory in the Yutian region of Xinjiang province.

© Ding Lei/Xinhua/Imago

China has long been criticized for allegations of forced labor.

Beijing has now signed two agreements designed to take the wind out of critics' sails.

Munich/Beijing – China* has joined two international conventions against forced labour.

According to a report by the Bloomberg news agency, the National People's Congress* ratified the two International Labor Organization (ILO) agreements on Wednesday (April 20).

As announced on the People's Congress website, these are the 1930 Forced Labor Convention and the 1957 Convention for the Abolition of Forced Labor. The move was expected.

The state news agency Xinhua had already announced the ratification last week: And the People's Congress usually waves through resolutions.

The 1930 Forced Labor Convention aims to combat forced labor in all its forms.

The 1957 supplemental convention also prohibits forced labor as punishment for strikes or dissent, both of which were permitted in the original document.

China was recently one of only eleven countries that have not yet joined the convention.

In a statement quoted by Bloomberg news agency on Wednesday, the ILO called China's ratification "of great importance."

China: Allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang

China's accession to the two conventions had been demanded by the EU in connection with the CAI* investment agreement.

Both sides agreed on the agreement in December 2020;

Beijing had recently agreed to sign the ILO conventions.

The EU was mainly concerned with allegations that people in the province of Xinjiang* were forced to do forced labor.

However, CAI is currently on hold and will not be ratified by the EU Parliament.

According to human rights organizations, hundreds of thousands of members of the Uyghur ethnic minority are being held in re-education camps in Xinjiang.

China denies the allegations.

Most recently, the consulting firm Horizon linked aluminum production in Xinjiang to forced labor.

If the allegations are confirmed, this should primarily have an impact on the automotive industry.

But cotton, raw materials for photovoltaic cells and other things also come from Xinjiang.

The EU is currently preparing a supply chain law, according to which companies will be held responsible for human rights violations in their supply chains in the future - and will therefore also have to pay attention to whether preliminary products from Xinjiang are manufactured using forced labor.

Germany has already passed a similar law that will come into force next year.

In March, China finally promised UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet access to Xinjiang*.

It was said at the time that an advance commission was to prepare the trip in April.

It is unclear whether accession to the ILO conventions is related to this.

It is also unknown whether the planning of Bachelet's journey actually progressed.

China: Investment agreement with EU still on hold

Despite China's accession to the ILO conventions, the CAI investment agreement is likely to remain in limbo.

So far, there has only been a political agreement between the two sides.

Now the EU Parliament has to ratify CAI, and the EU parliamentarians have made the lifting of sanctions by Beijing against EU MPs as well as diplomats and research institutions a condition for this.

Ratification, in turn, is a prerequisite for the EU Commission and European Council to negotiate a formal signature.

Speaking to Merkur.de recently, China analyst Francesca Ghiretti from the Merics think tank said she didn't think CAI would be signed anytime soon: "The situation hasn't changed: the sanctions that were responsible for putting it on hold are still in force"

The USA * have also responded to the allegations of forced labor against China.

From June, companies will no longer be allowed to import goods from Xinjiang unless they can prove that they were not produced using forced labor.

German MEP Reinhard Bütikofer, who has himself been subject to sanctions by China, considers Beijing's accession to the ILO conventions to be "particularly cynical, because in fact nothing is supposed to change with regard to forced labour.

One just cheekily claims that these do not exist and have never existed.” The Green politician said to Merkur.de: “Our European standard must be based on reality.

The forced labor to which many Uyghurs are still subjected must be ended instead of pretending that this brutal violation of human rights does not exist.” (sh) *