slave labor Archives - The Michigan Star

Michigan Bills Would Prevent State Funding of Companies Using Slave Labor

September 27, 2024September 27, 2024 The Center Square

Two identical bills introduced to the Michigan House and Senate would prohibit the state from entering economic development deals with companies tied to forced Chinese labor in the global supply chain.

HB 5959, sponsored by State Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Cannon Township, and SB 1015, sponsored by State Sen. Joe Bellino, would forbid the Michigan Strategic fund from subsidizing or providing tax incentives to companies that appear on the national Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List.

Michigan Bill: Stop Taxpayers from Funding Slave Labor via Green Energy

November 12, 2023November 11, 2023 The Center Square

As Michigan aims for 100% clean energy by 2040, a new plan aims to ensure that child slaves aren’t mining the rare earth minerals and assembling the solar panels.

Michigan House Republicans proposed a package aiming to stop taxpayer money from funding projects using child or forced labor for solar panels and electric vehicle battery parts.

Slave Labor Clouded Plunging U.S. Solar Market in 2022

March 10, 2023 Michigan Star Staff

U.S. solar panel installations plummeted in 2022 as lingering supply chain issues hindered the industry, although forecasters anticipate a bounceback and significant growth over the next decade, according to a joint report from the industry trade group Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and research analytics firm Woods Mackenzie released Thursday.

The primary cause of the decline was a significant disruption in the solar panel supply chain caused by detentions of Chinese solar panel materials by U.S. Customs and Border Protection over concerns that the products were developed by the forced labor of Uighur muslims, according to the report. While 2022 was a “tough year” for solar, supply chain issues are expected to be resolved in 2023, leading to a 41% surge in installations, Michelle Davis, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report, said in a press release Thursday.

Woke Funds in China and Europe Invest in Fossil Fuels and Slave Labor

September 12, 2022September 11, 2022 Admin

Investment groups in China and Europe intended to promote climate-friendly and social justice-related causes are funneling money into fossil fuel projects and companies associated with slave labor, a Bloomberg investigation found Tuesday.

China’s allegedly climate-sustaining investments have ballooned in the past couple of years since the Chinese government claimed they align with Beijing’s political agenda to revitalize rural labor, raise the nation’s prosperity and achieve carbon-neutral status, Bloomberg reported. However, ESG investors have stretched the definition of “Environmental, Social and Governance” investing to encompass investments in coal companies and firms tied to human rights violations in the Xinjiang province.

NBA Doing Business with Chinese Company Accused of Using Slave Labor

May 3, 2021May 2, 2021 Michigan Star Staff

In the latest example of the National Basketball Association (NBA) undergoing scrutiny due to its close ties with China, the organization has been revealed to be doing business with a shady Chinese company that has been accused of producing goods with forced labor from Uyghur Muslims, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The Chinese company in question is Anta Sports, the largest sportswear brand in all of China. Anta specifically relies on cotton from the Xinjiang region of China, which also happens to be one of the major hubs of systematic incarceration, indoctrination, and forced labor for Uyghur Muslims. Together, the NBA and Anta sell at least two different kinds of basketball shoes, with one of the shoes selling for up to $120 per pair in the United States.

The Xinjiang region, however, has seen more than one million Uyghurs removed from their homes and sent to concentration camps, known as “reeducation camps,” and are forced to do manual labor on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other Chinese entities. Through such labor, Xinjiang produces approximately 85 percent of all cotton in China, and around 20 percent of the world’s supply of cotton.

These Companies Are Linked to Forced Uighur Slave Labor

January 1, 2021December 31, 2020 Michigan Star Staff

A number of companies and brands have been linked to labor forced on Uighur Muslims by the Chinese government, according to multiple reports.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Apple supplier Lens Technology uses Uighur workers in its factories, according to documents obtained by the Tech Transparency Project. These workers were transferred from labor camps in the Xinjiang region of western China, WaPo reported.

Commentary: Will the Republican Establishment Survive the Coronavirus?

April 20, 2020April 20, 2020 Michigan Star Staff

President Trump will run whatever campaign he likes, but the playbook has practically been written for him: double down on the pro-worker, anti-globalization politics that won him his first term. Joe Biden, a barely conscious, Wall Street plutocrat – and a stooge for China, no less – is an obvious and easy foil.

Whatever happens this November, it is questionable whether the establishment politics that came before Trump will survive an unprecedented pandemic that is already testing the GOP’s commitment to “limited government.” The coronavirus has unleashed an enormous bi-partisan appetite for spending that is not likely to subside when the immediate health threat goes away.

The meltdown is only just getting started, but the signs of devastation are sobering.