Apple, others named in probe of human rights in China
updated 01:35 pm EST, Tue February 2, 2010
Investigation led by US senator
Apple is just one of 30 US corporations that have been asked for info on their human rights practices in China, Reuters reports. The requests are the work of the assistant US Senate majority leader, Dick Durbin, who cites Google as a standard for how American companies should behave when operating within China's communist regime. Google has threatened to end search censorship or even pull out of China altogether, following hacker intrusions on the Gmail accounts of human rights activists. It is widely suspected that the hackers have ties to the Chinese government.
"Google sets a strong example in standing up to the Chinese government's continued failure to respect the fundamental human rights of free expression and privacy," says Durbin. "I look forward to learning more about whether other American companies are willing to follow Google's lead."
Other companies mentioned in the probe include VoIP provider Skype, and social networking website Facebook. Apple may be called to account for several issues, such as its censorship at the App Store. Chinese visitors cannot download any apps connected to the Dalai Lama, or Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer. Some factories run by Apple suppliers have been accused of abusing their employees, for instance underpaying and overworking them, or recklessly exposing people to toxins.
In 2009, Apple itself revealed that over half of the Chinese factories run its partners were not paying workers properly. Some 23 (out of 83) were not paying a stipulated minimum wage.
Mac Elite
Joined: Oct 1999
Interesting
While I get it, and appreciate how economic pressures (kinda ironic given the whole "communist" thing) may be the only thing that actually encourages China to reforms it's human rights policy, this is where the US government should be making policy - it's a foreign government. The logic of pressuring US companies that do business in China to answer for that country's human rights issue can just as easily be applied to everyone that purchase products products from said company's - or from Chinese owned company's for that matter.
Sounds like an someone in an election year.