A gate to what is officially known as a vocational skills education centre in Xinjiang, China
Credit: REUTERS/Thomas Peter
In an announcement to the Shenzhen stock exchange, O-Film said: “Specific customers plan to terminate the purchasing relationship with the company and its subsidiaries.” Nikkei first reported the customer was Apple. An Apple spokesman declined to immediately comment.
O-Film, which employs 5,000 people and has revenues of $10bn, began supplying Apple in 2017, making parts that were used on iPhones and iPads. Apple chief executive Tim Cook featured on a promotional video on O-Film’s website where he praised the company and called for “closer collaboration”. O-Film was contacted for comment.
It comes as technology and fashion companies face mounting pressure to sweep their supply chains for raw materials and suppliers linked to human rights abuses in China.
On Wednesday, the Business Select Committee published a report calling on the Government to tighten modern slavery rules and create a “whitelist and blacklist” of companies that have cleaned up their supply chains and those that have not.
The report quoted a study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that claimed “more than 82 foreign and Chinese companies directly or indirectly benefit from the exploitation of Uighur workers in Xinjiang”, including Apple.
According to Apple’s latest report on supplier responsibility, in 2019 it found “12 core violations in the labour and human rights category”. Apple’s report said it had stopped working with 145 suppliers since 2009 over their failure to address its findings.
Apple’s report says suppliers found violating its code of conduct “are required to immediately remediate any Core Violation and that “to retain our business, they must also take and sustain preventive measures to ensure the violation does not reoccur”.
In November, Apple placed supplier Pegatron on probation for violations of student labour rules in its Chinese facilities.
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