The NBA, Nike, Disney, and others are again under scrutiny after a shocking video showing Chinese security forces guarding up to four hundred cuffed and blindfolded prisoners in a factory region where sportswear and other products are manufactured.

The video depicts black-clad, uniformed security guards standing over hundreds of newly shaved, blindfolded, and handcuffed prisoners sitting cross-legged on the ground in their blue prison uniforms.

Analysis of the video lends credence to its veracity and finds that the video was recorded in mid-August of last year near the factory sector of Xinjiang, China.

4 days ago a video showing 3-400 detainees handcuffed & blindfolded at a train station in Xinjiang was uploaded to YouTube (https://t.co/GpEaZ7YkIK)

In this thread I'll share how I've verified that this video was filmed at 库尔勒西站 (41.8202, 86.0176) on or around August 18th. pic.twitter.com/hr5xd8nahM — Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) September 21, 2019

It has been reported that many of the prisoners in this region are comprised of China’s Uyghur ethnic minority. The use of Uyghurs as a forced labor force was recently chronicled in an extensive report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

The reports says that between 2017 and 2019, the Chinese government relocated a minimum 80,000 Uyghurs from Xinjiang in western China to factories across the country where they work “under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour.” The government is reportedly using the slave labor for manufacturing items ordered by some 83 international companies making everything from footwear to electronics.

“The Chinese government has facilitated the mass transfer of Uyghur and other ethnic minority citizens from the far west region of Xinjiang to factories across the country,” the ASPI report revealed. “Under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uyghurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of at least 83 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing, and automotive sectors, including Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Samsung, Sony, and Volkswagen.”

The list of big-name, western corporations is long and includes companies such as Apple, Nike, Amazon, Disney, Samsung, Zara, Costco, H&M, Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, and many more. Often the products made for these giant companies that parts and supplies for finished products, so the large companies don’t always note that their products come from factories in Xinjiang where the Uyghurs are imprisoned in forced labor camps.

At the time that ASOI released its report, Chinese officials virulently denied the report.

“This type of report is full of lies. The aid program is a beneficial scheme that helps Uygur people to earn income and learn new skills,” a Communist Party official in Xinjiang told the government-run Global Times. “Xinjiang workers are recruited in a formal and legal way, some through local personnel departments, and others via human resource agencies. They [the workers] are all voluntary.”

But this video casts serious doubt on just how benevolent the factory camps could be. With hundreds of men lined up in all too familiar railroad depot scenes, the video is not the look of “beneficial” training programs, but prison-styled oppression.

Companies like Nike, Disney, the NBA, and others have been repeatedly confronted with their reliance on Chinese slave labor to produce their products, but few have taken any concrete steps to put an end to their reliance on these suppliers.

The NBA, in particular, has come under fire for its close business ties to China. That cozy relationship was highlighted when the league rose up as one — players, coaches, team owners, and league officials alike — to attack Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey for an inoffensive tweet expressing support for the pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong.

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