Lawmakers Question NBA Players' Decisions to Endorse Chinese Brands That Use Xinjiang Cotton
A senator and a House member who sponsored the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in their respective chambers have asked the union that represents National Basketball Association players to consider the fact that Chinese sportswear companies Anta, Li-Ning and Peak use cotton grown in the Xinjang region. The U.S. blocks the importation of all cotton grown in Xinjiang because of the probability that it was planted or harvested with forced labor of Uyghur Muslims. The National Basketball Players Association didn't immediately comment.
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Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., who lead the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, sent a letter June 1. They say the union should educate its members about the systematic use of forced labor in Xinjiang, and they say players should not endorse products of those companies, since they use Xinjiang cotton. Their bill would create a rebuttable presumption that all goods from Xinjiang are made with forced labor.
"We believe that commercial relationships with companies that source cotton in Xinjiang create reputational risks for NBA players and the NBA itself. The U.S. State Department has determined that the Chinese government is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, including the mass internment of over a million primarily Muslim ethnic minorities and the systematic use of forced labor to make goods for global export," they wrote. "NBA players have a track record of using their large public platform to speak out against injustice, and we hope this will include Xinjiang. Complicity in forced labor is neither consistent with American values nor with U.S. law."