A man has been arrested and two are missing in China after conducting an investigation into a Chinese company making Ivanka Trump-branded shoes, China Labor Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, said yesterday.
Labor activist Hua Haifeng (華海峰) was arrested in Jiangxi Province on suspicion of illegally using eavesdropping equipment, China Labor Watch executive director Li Qiang (李強) said.
The three men had been investigating labor conditions at factories that produce shoes for Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, and other Western brands, he said in an e-mail.
“We appeal to President Trump, Ivanka Trump herself, and to her related brand company to advocate and press for the release our activists,” China Labor Watch said in the e-mail to reporters.
The Ivanka Trump brand declined to comment, while the White House and Ivanka Trump’s lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Calls to provincial police in Jiangxi and Ganzhou city police were not answered.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said she did know anything about the situation and declined further comment.
The reported arrest and disappearances come at a time of sustained pressure on labor activists in China amid a crackdown on civil society under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
In recent years, many labor rights activists have reported being intimidated and harassed, temporarily detained, or restricted in their movement.
Li said that in 17 years of activism, including investigations of hundreds of factories in China, his group had never had anyone arrested on suspicion of having committed a crime.
“This is the first time we’ve come across this kind of situation,” he said, adding that the accusation against Hua had “no factual basis.”
Rights group Amnesty International called for the release of the three if they were held only for investigating possible labor abuses at the factories.
“Activists exposing potential human rights abuses deserve protection not persecution,” said William Nee (倪偉平), a China researcher for Amnesty.
“The trio appear to be the latest to fall foul of the Chinese authorities’ aggressive campaign against human rights activists who have any ties to overseas organizations, using the pretense of ‘national security,’” Nee said.
China routinely rejects foreign criticism of its rights record and says it is a country ruled by law.
Li Qiang said Hua and another investigator, Li Zhao (李招), had worked covertly at a shoe factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, that was owned by the Huajian Group (華堅).
The third investigator, Su Heng (蘇恆), had worked at a related factory in Ganzhou in Jiangxi, but went incommunicado after Saturday last week.
Both factories produced Ivanka Trump-branded shoes, Li Qiang said.
The investigators had discovered evidence that workers’ rights had been violated, he said.
Hua had been investigating a vocational school in Jiangxi affiliated with Huajian Group when he was arrested.
A woman surnamed Mu, who said she was in charge of recruitment at Huajian, said she had not heard about the case.
A switchboard operator at Huajian’s headquarters declined to transfer reporters to company officials in a position to address questions about the situation.
Hua and Li Zhao had been warned by authorities weeks ago that they were suspected of having broken the law, and were barred from crossing the border into Hong Kong in April and last month, Li Qiang said.
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