Apple wanted to influence forced labor legislation to influence Uyghurs

Apple has lobbied around US legislation to prevent Uyghurs from benefiting from forced labor in China. Among other things, Apple later wanted to comply with the law and only tell information about the labor to Congress and not to the public.

Apple paid $ 90,000 for the lobbying work of Fierce Government Relations last summer, The New York Times reports. The company wanted to ensure that provisions in legislation intended to limit forced labor by Uyghurs would apply later. It also wanted to disclose information about its supply chain only to a Congressional committee, rather than requiring the information to be publicly available online.

The electronics manufacturer has many business interests in China and has many of its products manufactured there. A previous report from Australia’s Strategic Policy Institute indicated that Apple is one of 82 companies benefiting from the forced labor of the minority group in China’s Xinjiang province. Supplier O-Film Technology is said to have employed 700 Uyghurs in a program to ‘change their ideology’.

The New York Times relies on a document containing the changes proposed by Apple. Apple said in a response that it is trying to eliminate forced labor at suppliers. If a supplier turns out to have worked with forced labor, Apple will switch to another supplier, the company says. “Earlier this year, we conducted a survey of our suppliers in China and found no forced labor on Apple’s production lines. We will continue to monitor this,” Apple said.