The government targeted companies involved in making seafood, aluminum and footwear, citing their links to labor programs affecting Chinese minorities.
It seems directly related to me. If the US government is fine with slave labour at home, then this decision is really only because the companies sanctioned are Chinese.
Forcing prisoners to repay a debt to society through labor, and forcing the minority you’re actively genociding to produce goods feel like two very different things.
I strongly disagree with US prison labor, and our prison system’s focus on punishment and repayment rather than actually correcting the behaviors, but it’s legal by the US constitution.
I don’t really care if it’s legal in the constitution, it’s “legal” in China too. My point is that I want it changed so there’s no forced labor in a country that that corporations can profit from it since it’s going to inherently drive conflicts of interest and I feel it too often gets ignored in this country.
Yet the overwhelming majority of the time, they’ve committed a crime. There may be systematic issues in the justice system, and US that lead to the higher conviction rates/arrest rates, but we have the right to appeal, the right to representation, and our criminal justice system is regularly investigated and publicized.
On the flip side, on a mass scale in Xinjiang, people are being systematically targeted, sterilized, tortured, being forced to work, etc. solely because of their culture and skin color.
The two systems are very different. Two things can be bad, and one of those bad things can be substantially worse. It’s like wondering why Texas will execute a serial killer, but not someone who punched someone at a bar. Both things are bad, but the scale is completely different.
Not to mention that even in the 60’s Nixon’s cabinet has stated he specifically started the war on drugs and marijuana in order to imprison black people and anyone against the war.
“We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news”
Having the red line as genocide, or as slavery from the buying and selling of people feels like a pretty safe line to have. Blocking goods is a very serious move in international relations.
The US justice system is not inherently racist, it’s systematically racist, which isn’t good, but is a different thing. Nearly every person in the US prison system is there because they committed a crime. The people in Xinjiang did nothing but have the wrong culture and skin color. It’s still a false equivalency.
Anyone can involve themselves and investigate the US court system, they can file complaints, they can sue for unfair treatment etc. International monitors are barred from Xinjiang.
Nearly every person in the US prison system is there because they committed a crime.
Many of them low-level crimes that wouldn’t exist without the pointless drug war and far more often people of color for those crimes than white people who do the same thing. In fact, white people are far less likely to be convicted for a crime of any sort compared to people of color. I’d call that inherent.
They’re not two different things. They both incentivize the government to subjugate people to enrich themselves and corporations.
This means many innocent people are enslaved or are enslaved for crimes that do not deserve enslavement. That’s why the US has far and away the most prisoners of any country.
Great can we ban it in the US then?
I agree, but can we try to focus on the topic at hand and discuss that?
It seems directly related to me. If the US government is fine with slave labour at home, then this decision is really only because the companies sanctioned are Chinese.
Forcing prisoners to repay a debt to society through labor, and forcing the minority you’re actively genociding to produce goods feel like two very different things.
I strongly disagree with US prison labor, and our prison system’s focus on punishment and repayment rather than actually correcting the behaviors, but it’s legal by the US constitution.
The US DoL has an article on the situation with these laborers in China. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/against-their-will-the-situation-in-xinjiang
I don’t really care if it’s legal in the constitution, it’s “legal” in China too. My point is that I want it changed so there’s no forced labor in a country that that corporations can profit from it since it’s going to inherently drive conflicts of interest and I feel it too often gets ignored in this country.
Also with minorities being incarcerated at a much higher rate than white citizens. I find that just saying it’s paying back a debt to society fails to recognize the law isn’t being applied equally.
Also in many cases they’re already having to pay for their incarceration.
Yet the overwhelming majority of the time, they’ve committed a crime. There may be systematic issues in the justice system, and US that lead to the higher conviction rates/arrest rates, but we have the right to appeal, the right to representation, and our criminal justice system is regularly investigated and publicized.
On the flip side, on a mass scale in Xinjiang, people are being systematically targeted, sterilized, tortured, being forced to work, etc. solely because of their culture and skin color.
The two systems are very different. Two things can be bad, and one of those bad things can be substantially worse. It’s like wondering why Texas will execute a serial killer, but not someone who punched someone at a bar. Both things are bad, but the scale is completely different.
Being a runaway slave used to be a crime. Your “they were convicted” argument is not a good one.
Not to mention that even in the 60’s Nixon’s cabinet has stated he specifically started the war on drugs and marijuana in order to imprison black people and anyone against the war.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html
Why should the red line be at genocide?
The U.S. justice system is inherently racist and it utilizes forced labor. That should be enough.
Having the red line as genocide, or as slavery from the buying and selling of people feels like a pretty safe line to have. Blocking goods is a very serious move in international relations.
The US justice system is not inherently racist, it’s systematically racist, which isn’t good, but is a different thing. Nearly every person in the US prison system is there because they committed a crime. The people in Xinjiang did nothing but have the wrong culture and skin color. It’s still a false equivalency.
Anyone can involve themselves and investigate the US court system, they can file complaints, they can sue for unfair treatment etc. International monitors are barred from Xinjiang.
Many of them low-level crimes that wouldn’t exist without the pointless drug war and far more often people of color for those crimes than white people who do the same thing. In fact, white people are far less likely to be convicted for a crime of any sort compared to people of color. I’d call that inherent.
Our prisoners: bad, evil, guilty
Their prisoners: heroic, moral, innocent.
They’re not two different things. They both incentivize the government to subjugate people to enrich themselves and corporations.
This means many innocent people are enslaved or are enslaved for crimes that do not deserve enslavement. That’s why the US has far and away the most prisoners of any country.
As the old saying goes: “Change the worlds start with
yourselfChina”