From pension funds to multinational corporations, investors and consumers worldwide are unwittingly funding companies that exploit forced labor from China’s Xinjiang region. A groundbreaking investigation reveals how major brands directly own factories involved in this oppressive system.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, in collaboration with the New York Times and Der Spiegel, has uncovered direct links between 100 global brands – including Apple, Samsung, and Volkswagen – and China’s state-imposed labor transfer program. This scheme moves ethnic minority workers from Xinjiang to factories across China, often under coercive conditions.

LG, the South Korean electronics giant, exemplifies this troubling trend. Despite public denials, evidence shows LG directly operates factories receiving Xinjiang workers through its joint venture, LG Panda Appliances. Social media posts from workers reveal the human cost of this system, with one Kazakh herder documenting his transition from nomadic life to an assembly line in Jiangsu province.

The investigation exposes how international companies participate in this system through joint ventures – a business model that gives the Chinese Communist Party significant control over foreign operations. “They can no longer say no,” explains China risk advisor Kirsten Asdal, describing how Beijing has systematically embedded control mechanisms over foreign investments.

Chinese appliance giants like Hisense, Midea, and Haier – now global brands themselves – also actively participate in the labor transfer program. State media reports describe how workers from notorious internment camps are “transformed” into factory workers under “semi-militarized” systems with ideological assessments and punishments.

Shockingly, these operations are financed by major international investors, including state pension funds from Europe and North America. Vanguard Group holds stakes in 16 implicated Chinese companies, while sovereign wealth funds from Norway, Canada, and South Korea are also exposed.

While some companies claim to audit their supply chains, the investigation reveals forced labor persists in brand-owned factories – a fact previously undocumented. As pressure mounts, human rights experts urge investors to leverage their positions to end these practices. “If a company fails to act promptly,” warns Rebecca DeWinter-Schmitt of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, “investors must consider divestment.”

The Chinese government continues to deny all allegations, dismissing them as “vicious lies” by “anti-China forces.” However, the mounting evidence paints a disturbing picture of how global capital sustains a system of oppression in China’s manufacturing heartland.