中国商务部在周二表示，将调查美国零售品牌PVH（拥有Calvin Klein和Tommy Hilfiger两个品牌的公司），是否采取了针对新疆产品的歧视性措施。这一行动进一步展示了中国政府应对禁止或抵制新疆产品行为的努力。
此举旨在向跨国企业发出信号：如果它们顺应消费者抵制或政府对新疆产品的禁令，可能面临来自中国的报复。这凸显了大公司在面对中国政策捍卫者与西方国家及人权倡导组织之间的双重压力下所处的困境。PVH总部位于纽约，在收到问询电子邮件后尚未立即作出回应。
本周五，《中国-欧盟跨议会联盟》的一个由至少22个国家和欧盟议员组成的团体，呼吁大众汽车撤出新疆地区。大众汽车在中国有190名员工与上海市政府拥有的汽车制造商建立了合资企业。鉴于北京的国家所有企业的行动遵循其反对从新疆撤出的战略，中国汽车合作伙伴亦效仿。
该联盟在发布这一声明后不久，中国学者张展（Adrian Zenz）在其对大众汽车在新疆政策中所涉不当行为未能充分调查的报告中提出了相关审计泄露信息。大众汽车否认了Zenz的说法。
大众汽车上周一表示，在新疆地区并未制造汽车，当地工人为交付经销商的产品做准备。
中国不仅是庞大的消费市场，也是全球最大的制造商之一。许多公司，尤其是服装零售商，严重依赖中国的工厂生产，如遇中国政府决定对子公司或供应商实施制裁，这些公司可能变得脆弱易感。
在美国，《新疆强制劳工预防法》于2022年6月生效，禁止任何从新疆进口的货物，除非货主能够向美国海关官员证明产品未使用强迫劳动。该法律实施以来，证明这一点几乎成为不可能完成的任务，因为中国已禁止独立对新疆劳动力做法进行调查。人权倡导组织表示，新疆广阔的棉花田被广泛用于供应全中国的纺织厂，而新疆产棉占中国总产量的90%以上。
欧盟正在制定类似《新疆强制劳工预防法》的禁令。
几年前，在西方消费者和人权团体开始组织抵制行动时，如果使用了来自新疆地区的棉花的品牌最初试图避开新疆供应商。PVH在2020年7月宣布，在未来12个月内将断绝与任何生产衣物或面料的新疆工厂和纺纱厂的关系，以及那些供应新疆棉花的渠道。
中国政府随后于次年允许民族主义团体利用中国的网络审查系统组织对不从新疆购买产品的西方品牌的抵制活动。H&M很快就遇到了顾客对其店铺的冷遇。
曾为中国消费者代言Calvin Klein、Tommy Hilfiger，以及Adidas、Nike和Converse等品牌的影响人物迅速停止了与这些品牌的合作关系。Burberry不得不放弃了一个在线视频游戏合作协议。
西方面对新疆问题的公司很快减少了提及政策方面的声明。但《新疆强制劳工预防法》使它们避免新疆产品的动力日益增强。
中国悄然通过了自己的法律，禁止遵守其他国家的法律法规、制裁或抵制行动。商务部具有权威性以判定商业决策构成对中国国家安全的威胁。
商务部在周二表示，将给予PVH30天时间提供有关是否避开了从新疆采购商品的文件。如果查明违反了中国的法律法规，该部门可能会采取进口和出口禁令、投资限制或禁止、对PVH员工在中国的工作权或入境进行限制，以及可能对公司的罚款。
针对PVH的这一强烈警告发生之际，中国政府正试图吸引外国投资者。商务部试图传递一个安抚信息：其对PVH的行动旨在维护自由贸易，而非抑制贸易，“中国政府坚决推动高水平开放，坚定维护多边贸易体制，坚定保护各市场参与者的合法权益”，并补充道，“诚实守法的外商实体无需担忧”。
新闻来源：www.nytimes.com
原文地址：China to Investigate U.S. Retailer, Sending a Message Over Xinjiang
新闻日期：2024-09-24
原文摘要：
China said on Tuesday that it would investigate whether PVH, the American retailer that owns the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, has taken “discriminatory measures” against products from Xinjiang in China’s far west. The announcement, by China’s Ministry of Commerce, is a new escalation of China’s effort to fight bans or consumer boycotts of goods from Xinjiang. Many Western governments have begun restricting or banning products from Xinjiang following mass arrests and evidence of forced labor among the region’s predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, particularly the Uyghurs. Researchers have cited evidence that cotton production in Xinjiang has been tainted by coercion. Beijing is sending a message to multinational corporations that if they comply with consumer boycotts or government bans on products from Xinjiang, they may face retaliation in China. China’s action underlines how big companies increasingly find themselves sandwiched between pressures from the Chinese government, which defends its policies in Xinjiang, and Western countries and human rights advocacy groups. PVH, which is based in New York, did not immediately reply to emails seeking comment. On Friday, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group with lawmakers from at least 22 countries and the European Union, issued a statement calling for Volkswagen to withdraw from Xinjiang. Volkswagen, Germany’s largest automaker, has a 190-employee joint venture in Xinjiang with a carmaker owned by the Shanghai municipal governments. Chinese state-owned enterprises like Volkswagen’s partner follow Beijing’s lead in opposing any withdrawal from Xinjiang. The alliance issued its statement after Adrian Zenz, the director in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, issued a report that cited a leaked audit that Volkswagen had commissioned. His report said the automaker had failed to properly investigate accusations of complicity in Xinjiang’s coercive policies toward Uyghurs. Volkswagen rejected Mr. Zenz’s claims. Volkswagen said on Monday that it was not building cars in Xinjiang, where workers prepare cars for delivery to dealerships. China is not only a large consumer market but also the world’s largest manufacturer. Many companies, particularly apparel retailers, depend heavily on factories in China and could be vulnerable if Beijing decided to impose sanctions on their subsidiaries or suppliers. In the United States, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act bans the import of any goods from Xinjiang unless the importer can prove to American customs officials that the products were made without forced labor. The law took effect in June 2022. Proving that has become practically impossible, as China has banned independent investigations of labor practices in Xinjiang. Advocacy groups say that forced labor is widely used in Xinjiang’s vast cotton fields, which supply textile factories all over China. Xinjiang produces more than 90 percent of all the cotton grown in China. The European Union is in the process of imposing a ban similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. When consumer and human rights groups in the West began organizing boycotts several years ago of brands that used cotton from Xinjiang, big clothing brands initially tried to shun Xinjiang suppliers. PVH said in July 2020 that within the next 12 months, it would cease all business relationships with factories and mills that produced garments or fabric in Xinjiang, or that supplied cotton from the region. China responded the next year by allowing nationalist groups to use the country’s heavily censored internet to organize their own boycotts of Western brands that did not buy from Xinjiang. H&M soon found shoppers were shunning its stores. Influential personalities who had endorsed Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, as well as Adidas, Nike and Converse, in China quickly stopped working on behalf of the brands. Burberry had to give up an online video game partnership. Western companies quickly stopped saying much about their policies in Xinjiang. But the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act has given them a strong incentive to avoid Xinjiang products anyway. China has quietly passed its own laws that ban compliance with laws, sanctions or boycotts in other countries. The commerce ministry has authority to deem commercial decisions as a threat to China’s national security. The Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday that it would allow PVH 30 days to provide documents regarding whether it had avoided buying from Xinjiang. If PVH is found to have violated China’s laws, the ministry said, the penalties could include a halt to the company’s imports and exports from China, restrictions or bans on investments in China, restrictions or bans on PVH employees from working or entering China, and possibly fines on the company. China’s strong threat to PVH comes as the Chinese government has been trying to woo foreign investors. The ministry tried to send a reassuring message, saying that its actions against PVH were aimed at preserving free trade, not suppressing it. “The Chinese government is determined to promote high-level opening-up, firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, and firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of various market operators,” the ministry said. “Honest and law-abiding foreign entities have nothing to worry about,” it added.
