Update | Chinese labour activists investigating Ivanka Trump supplier held for ‘stealing industrial secrets’
The three activists had been studying allegations of labour abuses at a company that supplied shoes to the Ivanka Trump brand, a pressure group says
Three labour activists in China who scrutinised a company making Ivanka Trump-branded shoes are under investigation on suspicion of providing industrial secrets to a foreign organisation for money, state media reported on Wednesday.
China on Tuesday rejected a call from the US State Department for the release of the activists saying they were under investigation on suspicion of interfering with a company’s “normal operation and production activities” and the illegal use of “professional surveillance equipment”.
The Paper, a Shanghai city government-backed newspaper, reported that police had found that the three got into “a certain factory” in Ganzhou in Jiangxi province by applying for jobs there after “receiving another person’s prompting”.
“They used specially bought hidden camera watches, professionally gathered internal documents on the factories’ production, hiring and salary standards as well as other industrial secrets, furthermore supplying these to relevant overseas organisations, with the purpose of obtaining funding support,” the Paper cited police as saying.
Neither the newspaper nor the foreign ministry identified the factory, nor did they mention any link to the Ivanka Trump brand, but the US-based China Labour Watch organisation said the three – Li Zhao, Su Heng and Hua Haifeng – had been looking into conditions at factories that produce shoes for the daughter of US President Donald Trump and other Western brands.
The newspaper said Su and others had admitted to using job applications to “infiltrate” factories across the country to provide pictures of production to foreign organisations since 2010.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday the case would be handled in accordance with the law and no country had the right to interfere in the judicial process.
“No country can interfere in China’s sovereign and judicial independence,” she said in a press conference.
A spokeswoman for the US State Department said on Monday labour activists have helped US companies understand conditions in their China supply chains, “which can be essential in fulfilling their own responsibilities and holding Chinese manufacturers accountable under Chinese labour laws”.
A man who answered the telephone at the Ganzhou police department declined to comment, saying he was not familiar with the case. Hua’s lawyer, Wen Yu, also declined to comment.
Deng Guilian, Hua’s wife, said she was not aware of the specifics of the case, although she said her husband had told her he was not being mistreated.
China Labour Watch said Hua and Li had worked covertly at a shoe factory owned by the Huajian Group in the city of Dongguan. Su had worked at a related factory in Ganzhou, the group said.
Both factories produced Ivanka Trump-branded shoes, China Labour Watch said. The investigators had discovered evidence that workers’ rights had been violated, it said.
The Ivanka Trump brand, the White House and Ivanka Trump’s lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, have not responded to requests for comment on the case.
It was the first time in 17 years that activists working for the non-profit workers-advocacy group have been detained by the Chinese police.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
