German companies and China’s human rights – level 2

German companies and China s human rights

13-02-2024 07:00

German media accused a partner company of a chemical giant BASF of being involved in human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region.

According to the investigation, employees of this partner company spied on Uighur households in 2018. BASF denied this, but critics are not happy with their explanation. Similar allegations surfaced against big car manufacturers like Toyota and Volkswagen. To stop forced labor, companies might need to leave Chinese supply chains. But companies may have troubles with money because China is a big economy and it produces many parts.

The EU is considering a new supply chain law which would deal with environmental and human rights, but it is not clear how effective it will be.

Difficult words: violation (doing something what is not allowed by a law or rule), spy (to secretly get information about someone), allegation (claim).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.

What measures can companies take to combat forced labor in Chinese supply chains, and how effective do you think the proposed EU supply chain law would be in addressing this issue?

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