Apple's Chinese wind power partner linked to Uyghur forced labor programs

AppleInsider

A wind farm company in China that has partnered with Apple has allegedly been linked to the use of forced labor of Uyghurs from the Xinjiang region, increasing the number of companies said to be involved with the repression.

A report in May claimed a group of seven suppliers involved in the Apple supply chain were participants in labor programs thought to be connected to the Chinese genocide of Xinjiang Uyghurs. In a second report on Tuesday, it seems one more company has been added to the list.

Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology is a major manufacturer of wind turbines, has been accused of taking advantage of the labor programs. The investigation by the Tech Transparency Project into the relatively secretive operations of the producer uncovered supposed evidence from local government posts in 2016 that a factory in Xinjiang was in talks to receive "labor export" from Hotan Prefecture, 500 miles away from the factory.

It is unknown if there was a transfer of workers, as government accounts were deleted, but other items raised similar questions. For example, Goldwind founder and chairman Wu Gang had allegedly took part in a Chinese government campaign promoting ideological education of Xinjiang Uyghurs.

Goldwind has also apparently worked with a paramilitary organization sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2020 over a "connection to serious human rights abuse against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang." Goldwind is said to have made an agreement with the firm in December 2020, following the announcement of U.S. sanctions.

In 2016, Apple made a deal with Goldwind to work on renewable energy projects, which includes a quartet of wind farm joint ventures. The projects are part of Apple's work to make its supply chain in China carbon neutral by 2030.

Two years later, Apple established the $300 million China Clean Energy Fund, to further develop solar and wind projects in the country. It is unknown if any of that funding was paid to Goldwind.

The report surfaces at the same time as another, accusing firms in Apple's supply chain of using discriminatory language in job advertisements to warn minorities from applying for production line roles.

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DAalseth

At this point I think it’s safest to assume that ALL Chinese companies are involved in the genocide of Xinjiang Uyghurs. It has become so widespread. Even if a company didn’t want to use them, they will end up doing so either directly or indirectly. 

sflocal

This is getting ridiculous.  Any company doing business with China should assume they're using what is essentially slave/forced labor.  Companies need to do the right thing and just stop doing business with this wretched government.  Yes, it will hurt and those $50 microwave ovens are going to cost more, but "cheap" is turning out to have a way higher price.

Just dump these guys.  Move on.

waveparticle

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

Beats

I wonder if Apple sites should stop reporting what happens at 3rd party companies. It’s always negative news and it’s never about Apple. Morons refer to these articles and news as “proof” that “Apple employees” are treated badly.

I’m no one to tell sites what to report but this is absurd outside of Apple sites. For example Foxconn manufactures and for a huge variety of companies from Amazon to Microsoft but when ANYTHING negative happens there the news is exclusive to Apple. Headlines like “Apple suppliers being abused” or “Employees overworked at Apple manufacturer” are written... even if those employees were working on the new Xbox. You’ll have a hard time seeing headlines like these outside of Apple. A headline like “McDonald’s beef supplier inhumane to animals” would be hard to find or “Wal Mart electronics manufacturer practicing labor abuse”. Though those companies will be mentioned in the article they’re hardly ever worded as if the customer is responsible or to blame.

A few days ago I had to correct an iKnockoff moron who claimed Apple installed nets because “Apple employees” were committing suicide. Besides so much being wrong with the claim I had to correct the moron and point out that Foxconn is not Apple. Ironically, his iKnockoff was probably manufactured there as well. 🤦‍♂️ 

And fu** this wind company if this is true. Chinese companies will take advantage of the oppressed whenever they can. I remember companies taking advantage of prisoners in the past. Hope that has stopped as well. 

StrangeDays

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

In the US job-required training is paid time. If your time is spent on company or client work, you should be getting paid. Period. "Fuck you pay me" is the correct term.

waveparticle

StrangeDays said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

In the US job-required training is paid time. If your time is spent on company or client work, you should be getting paid. Period. "Fuck you pay me" is the correct term.

The key point is whether they are being paid same as regular employee. There are news some students from elite schools such as Harvard or MIT are being paid very well. 

tmay

waveparticle said:

StrangeDays said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

In the US job-required training is paid time. If your time is spent on company or client work, you should be getting paid. Period. "Fuck you pay me" is the correct term.

The key point is whether they are being paid same as regular employee. There are news some students from elite schools such as Harvard or MIT are being paid very well. 

No, the key point is that it is forced labor, that they have no choice in whether they want to participate in the work, whether the pay is acceptable, and whether the conditions of employment, including locations of employment, are acceptable.

waveparticle

tmay said:

waveparticle said:

StrangeDays said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

In the US job-required training is paid time. If your time is spent on company or client work, you should be getting paid. Period. "Fuck you pay me" is the correct term.

The key point is whether they are being paid same as regular employee. There are news some students from elite schools such as Harvard or MIT are being paid very well. 

No, the key point is that it is forced labor, that they have no choice in whether they want to participate in the work, whether the pay is acceptable, and whether the conditions of employment, including locations of employment, are acceptable.

There is a problem here. CCP always like to stress that it deems race equality is very important. Why a Chinese company dares to violate this policy? Again this human right group does not provide doubtless evidence. It seems just a overstretched accusation. 

chelin

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

Not sure if we live in the same universe I’ve worked for a handful of startups and larger enterprises here in the Bay and City. An intern can count on a salary in the mid $100k. I’ve never came across anyone “working for free”! Granted that 100k won’t get you far and you’d probably look at living with roommates. But nevertheless this is categorically FALSE!

waveparticle

chelin said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

Not sure if we live in the same universe I’ve worked for a handful of startups and larger enterprises here in the Bay and City. An intern can count on a salary in the mid $100k. I’ve never came across anyone “working for free”! Granted that 100k won’t get you far and you’d probably look at living with roommates. But nevertheless this is categorically FALSE!

Amazing! So his salary will drop when exiting internship? 

chelin

His or her's salary will most definitely increase. Base pay potentially will be the same, however total comp will likely increase the salary by 2-4x through RSUs/GSUs/Options..

tmay

waveparticle said:

tmay said:

waveparticle said:

StrangeDays said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

In the US job-required training is paid time. If your time is spent on company or client work, you should be getting paid. Period. "Fuck you pay me" is the correct term.

The key point is whether they are being paid same as regular employee. There are news some students from elite schools such as Harvard or MIT are being paid very well. 

No, the key point is that it is forced labor, that they have no choice in whether they want to participate in the work, whether the pay is acceptable, and whether the conditions of employment, including locations of employment, are acceptable.

There is a problem here. CCP always like to stress that it deems race equality is very important. Why a Chinese company dares to violate this policy? Again this human right group does not provide doubtless evidence. It seems just a overstretched accusation. 

Sure, because China is well known for allowing investigative journalists into the country for the express purpose of exposing China's human rights violations. /s

I don't know where you came up with that statement about equality, but given that the population is some 95% Han, and there is evidence that the PRC is attempting to limit reproduction of minorities, which meets the definition of genocide, then of course, why would anyone believe the PRC? 

entropys

chelin said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

Not sure if we live in the same universe I’ve worked for a handful of startups and larger enterprises here in the Bay and City. An intern can count on a salary in the mid $100k. I’ve never came across anyone “working for free”! Granted that 100k won’t get you far and you’d probably look at living with roommates. But nevertheless this is categorically FALSE!

That waveparticle apologist might be trying to justify forced labour for whatever reason ( maybe because wind turbines are the modern world’s holy devices, who knows) but yeah, if graduates in your line of work get those sort of salaries “that won’t get you far” then yeah, you live in another universe. Lucky you.

maestro64

chelin said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

Not sure if we live in the same universe I’ve worked for a handful of startups and larger enterprises here in the Bay and City. An intern can count on a salary in the mid $100k. I’ve never came across anyone “working for free”! Granted that 100k won’t get you far and you’d probably look at living with roommates. But nevertheless this is categorically FALSE!

Considering I work in High tech for a long time and also worked and lived in the Valley and the Wife works in the recruiting industry, I can safely saying no "Inter" is making $100K a year ($8K per month) they make decent money $25K to $35K in 6 months. Keep in mind these are people without degrees and still a student and companies are not going to pay students that much for the 3 to 6 months they are there to learn. There could be exception, but that kind of pay is not the norm.

Keep in mind most inter position are non-paid by definition (Tech is the exception to that rule). There are lots of inters positioning the US which are not paid, there are medical students inters who work in Hospital who never get paid (they say it is part of the learning process). The media industry does not pay inters and the worse abusers of this is the government there are plenty of students who work for various levels of government and do not get paid.

I personally never like the internship programs. I went to one of few Universities in this country with a mandatory co-op which required you work and get paid while you worked in your field of study. There are many studies showing those student who do free internship end up with starting salaries $5K to $10K less than those who did not do an internship. For students who do paid co-ops have starting salaries $5K to $10K more than those who just went to school. Working for the experience without the pay just ends up devaluing you and a companies know you are willing to work for less because you did a fee internship.

entropys

Isn’t CCP land nominally communist? In which case, “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”. 

The  Uyghurs should be grateful to the glorious state and intertwined  corporates they can contribute their abilities at all, should they not?.

And consistent with all forms of socialism, the needs of the CCP leadership in government and corporations is clearly quite large. 

Everyone else gets to look in through the farmhouse window.

waveparticle

tmay said:

waveparticle said:

tmay said:

waveparticle said:

StrangeDays said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

In the US job-required training is paid time. If your time is spent on company or client work, you should be getting paid. Period. "Fuck you pay me" is the correct term.

The key point is whether they are being paid same as regular employee. There are news some students from elite schools such as Harvard or MIT are being paid very well. 

No, the key point is that it is forced labor, that they have no choice in whether they want to participate in the work, whether the pay is acceptable, and whether the conditions of employment, including locations of employment, are acceptable.

There is a problem here. CCP always like to stress that it deems race equality is very important. Why a Chinese company dares to violate this policy? Again this human right group does not provide doubtless evidence. It seems just a overstretched accusation. 

Sure, because China is well known for allowing investigative journalists into the country for the express purpose of exposing China's human rights violations. /s

I don't know where you came up with that statement about equality, but given that the population is some 95% Han, and there is evidence that the PRC is attempting to limit reproduction of minorities, which meets the definition of genocide, then of course, why would anyone believe the PRC? 

The evidence you quoted is not enough to be a true evidence. 

crowley

chelin said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

Not sure if we live in the same universe I’ve worked for a handful of startups and larger enterprises here in the Bay and City. An intern can count on a salary in the mid $100k. I’ve never came across anyone “working for free”! Granted that 100k won’t get you far and you’d probably look at living with roommates. But nevertheless this is categorically FALSE!

You’re definitely in a different universe from most people.

maestro64

Beats said:

I wonder if Apple sites should stop reporting what happens at 3rd party companies. It’s always negative news and it’s never about Apple. Morons refer to these articles and news as “proof” that “Apple employees” are treated badly.

I’m no one to tell sites what to report but this is absurd outside of Apple sites. For example Foxconn manufactures and for a huge variety of companies from Amazon to Microsoft but when ANYTHING negative happens there the news is exclusive to Apple. Headlines like “Apple suppliers being abused” or “Employees overworked at Apple manufacturer” are written... even if those employees were working on the new Xbox. You’ll have a hard time seeing headlines like these outside of Apple. A headline like “McDonald’s beef supplier inhumane to animals” would be hard to find or “Wal Mart electronics manufacturer practicing labor abuse”. Though those companies will be mentioned in the article they’re hardly ever worded as if the customer is responsible or to blame.

A few days ago I had to correct an iKnockoff moron who claimed Apple installed nets because “Apple employees” were committing suicide. Besides so much being wrong with the claim I had to correct the moron and point out that Foxconn is not Apple. Ironically, his iKnockoff was probably manufactured there as well. 🤦‍♂️ 

And fu** this wind company if this is true. Chinese companies will take advantage of the oppressed whenever they can. I remember companies taking advantage of prisoners in the past. Hope that has stopped as well. 

To your point, when I see and hear people complaining about what is happening in the world and somehow it is Apple's fault or any Companies' fault and they want to hold Apple accountable. I ask them why haven't they gotten on a plane and showed up in China and protest like the Tank Man in Tiananmen Square (BTW if you search on this it does not autofill and some search sites were coming back with nothings found until they got called on it). Most of complainers do not have guts and it is easier for them to feel good about themselves when they lobe tweets at Apple about how they will stop using Apple products if Apple does not do something.

Everyone wants to be social warrior becuase it only required knowledge to type a tweet, but none of them are willing to do what is really takes to fight these kinds of things like the loss of human life or having to pay more for their toys.

tmay

waveparticle said:

tmay said:

waveparticle said:

tmay said:

waveparticle said:

StrangeDays said:

waveparticle said:

This seems a reverse logic of what really happened. Goldwind Science & Technology may be trying to train Uyghurs to work. If you are being trained you are not considered a formal employee and got paid little. Similar things happened in silicon valley. Some young people wants to get into some high tech company. They volunteered to do work without pay. Without the facts it is too early to judge Goldwind Science & Technology is using forced labor. 

In the US job-required training is paid time. If your time is spent on company or client work, you should be getting paid. Period. "Fuck you pay me" is the correct term.

The key point is whether they are being paid same as regular employee. There are news some students from elite schools such as Harvard or MIT are being paid very well. 

No, the key point is that it is forced labor, that they have no choice in whether they want to participate in the work, whether the pay is acceptable, and whether the conditions of employment, including locations of employment, are acceptable.

There is a problem here. CCP always like to stress that it deems race equality is very important. Why a Chinese company dares to violate this policy? Again this human right group does not provide doubtless evidence. It seems just a overstretched accusation. 

Sure, because China is well known for allowing investigative journalists into the country for the express purpose of exposing China's human rights violations. /s

I don't know where you came up with that statement about equality, but given that the population is some 95% Han, and there is evidence that the PRC is attempting to limit reproduction of minorities, which meets the definition of genocide, then of course, why would anyone believe the PRC? 

The evidence you quoted is not enough to be a true evidence. 

Looks like there is even evidence provided by Chinese bureaucrats;

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/exclusive-amid-accusations-genocide-west-china-polices-could-cut-millions-uyghur-2021-06-07/

"Chinese birth control policies could cut between 2.6 to 4.5 million births of the Uyghur and other ethnic minorities in southern Xinjiang within 20 years, up to a third of the region’s projected minority population, according to a new analysis by a German researcher.

The report, shared exclusively with Reuters ahead of publication, also includes a previously unreported cache of research produced by Chinese academics and officials on Beijing’s intent behind the birth control policies in Xinjiang, where official data shows birth-rates have already dropped by 48.7% between 2017 and 2019.

Adrian Zenz’s research comes amid growing calls among some western countries for an investigation into whether China’s actions in Xinjiang amount to genocide, a charge Beijing vehemently denies.

The research by Zenz is the first such peer reviewed analysis of the long-term population impact of Beijing’s multi-year crackdown in the western region. Rights groups, researchers and some residents say the policies include newly enforced birth limits on Uyghur and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities, the transfers of workers to other regions and the internment of an estimated one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in a network of camps."

But, but, no evidence...

harrywinter

It's truly sad what's happening to the Uyghur population in Xinjiang (the "New Province"). So many Uyghurs don't even get access to their own language. Imagine being punished for speaking, or trying to learn, your own language.