U. S. Presses China to Free Activists Scrutinizing Ivanka Trump Shoe Factory -<br />By KEITH BRADSHERJUNE 6, 2017<br />SHANGHAI — China faces growing pressure to release three labor activists detained for investigating conditions at factories<br />that make Ivanka Trump’s shoe brand, as experts warned that the detentions could make it more difficult for other Western companies to take a clear look at the practices of their Chinese suppliers.<br />“To the extent that a brand will only purchase items<br />that it is confident were produced free of labor abuse, limitations on independent monitors present a serious obstacle to doing business in a jurisdiction,” said Aaron Halegua, a research fellow at New York University’s Center for Labor and Employment Law,<br />It is not clear why the three labor activists, who were working for an activist group called China Labor Watch,<br />were detained while others were not, or whether the connection to President Trump’s daughter played a role.<br />While activists in general are commonly detained in China, labor experts say<br />that this represents the first time that China has held undercover labor activists looking at the supply chains of Western companies.<br />The company last made a batch of the Ivanka Trump brand in March,<br />and was planning to do another batch at the end of May, before the activists were detained, China Labor Watch said<br />“There is no doubt that a statement by the Ivanka Trump organization, expressing deep concern over the detention of labor activists striving to improve<br />working conditions, would be helpful to their situation,” said Mr. Cohen, an influential academic since the 1960s on China’s legal system.
