New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) A popular collectible toy Labubu dolls has become the focal point of a broader US debate over Chinese supply chains, forced labour and the practical limits of import enforcement and US lawmakers intensified pressure on DHS over Chinese forced-labour imports, a new report has said.
The debate was ignited after tests suggested some Labubu dolls contained cotton traced to China’s Xinjiang region, the report from Maldives-based ETruth MV said.
Scrutiny of the rabbit‑eared Labubu dolls comes amidst intensified congressional pressure on the Department of Homeland Security to explain how effectively the United States is preventing goods linked to forced labour from entering the country.
“The pressure comes weeks after DHS made its largest single expansion of the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List, adding 43 companies and bringing the list to 187 entities,” the report noted.
The existence of the US forced-labour import ban prompted larger questions around effectiveness of authorities in tracing products through increasingly complicated international supply chains.
Eight US lawmakers have asked DHS details on goods stopped by CBP at the border and the manner of considering additional companies for the UFLPA Entity List. They also sought information about goods whose components originate in China but are processed or assembled in third countries.
The scrutiny extends to how DHS is using artificial intelligence to assess country-of-origin information and supply-chain documentation, and the manner in which the United States collaborates with peers to address transshipment through third countries.
“The issue is particularly significant for Xinjiang because the UFLPA applies not only to finished products directly exported from the region but also to merchandise containing material covered by the statute,” the report noted.
New York-based labour rights group China Labor Watch earlier this year said it uncovered evidence of worker exploitation at a factory of Chinese toy company Pop Mart forcing employees to sign blank cheques and work overtime. The factory supplies Labubus, from the popular “the Monsters” toy line made by Pop Mart.
Investigators who spent three months at Shunjia Toys factory in Xinfeng county, in south-east China’s Jiangxi province, found “workers routinely signed blank labour contracts.”
The report cited “16- and 17-year-olds being employed without the special protections for young workers required by Chinese law, inadequate health and safety training and other labour rights violations.”
–IANS
aar/pk
