Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. Tech, community, video games, and whatever else is next.

June 7, 2021: Amelia Pang, author, "Made in China," on forced labor creating American products

Listen to this show:  Pop-up player!

Tonight: Amelia Pang, author, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods

Heads up: If you own an Amazon surveillance device like an Echo or Ring, you have one day - the deadline is tomorrow, Tuesday, June 8 - to opt out of Amazon’s ambient surveillance program, called Sidewalk, which will bring about “mass wireless sharing”: details in this Guardian article. I still recommend, in all seriousness, disposing of all surveillance devices at your local e-waste recycling facility.

Links:

• Made in China on Indiebound

• Web: AmeliaPang.com

• Twitter: @ameliapangg

• EndUyghurForcedLabour.com

• It Took a Genocide for Me to Remember My Uighur Roots (by Amelia Pang in NYT Opinion, Jan 10, 2021): "Since 1949, the Chinese Communist Party has gradually established policies that threaten Uighur culture and identity. My family’s forced assimilation is a part of that story."

• 7 Apple suppliers in China have links to forced labor programs, including the use of Uyghur Muslims from Xinjiang, according to a new report (by Katie Canales in Insider, May 10, 2021): covers a report by The Information (behind paywall)

• Ben Mauk on Twitter (May 13, 2021): "The camp-to-prison pipeline appears to be a common trajectory for religious leaders and scholars in Xinjiang. This report accords with my own interviews with camp survivors and family members." Mauk is commenting on the May 13 BBC story Uyghur imams targeted in China's Xinjiang crackdown.

• John Cena video (posted to Twitter on May 24, 2021). Joe Xu writes, "John Cena apologized in Chinese on Sina Weibo after calling Taiwan a country during an interview promoting Fast & Furious 9."

• Surviving the Crackdown in Xinjiang (by Raffi Khatchadourian, New Yorker, April 12, 2021 issue): "As mass detentions and surveillance dominate the lives of China’s Uyghurs and Kazakhs, a woman struggles to free herself."

• Stolen By The State (by Brent Crane in Elle, May 21, 2021): "Four years ago, a famous Uyghur anthropologist disappeared. What happened? Her daughter is trying to find out."

• Censorship, Surveillance and Profits: A Hard Bargain for Apple in China (by Jack Nicas, Raymond Zhong and Daisuke Wakabayashi, NYT, May 17, 2021): "Apple [is] preparing to store the personal data of its Chinese customers on computer servers run by a state-owned Chinese firm." ... "A Times analysis found that tens of thousands of apps have disappeared from Apple’s Chinese App Store over the past several years, more than previously known, including foreign news outlets, gay dating services and encrypted messaging apps. It also blocked tools for organizing pro-democracy protests and skirting internet restrictions, as well as apps about the Dalai Lama."

• H&M Is Erased From Chinese E-Commerce Over Xinjiang Stance (by Eva Xiao in WSJ, March 25, 2021): "Apps block searches for clothing retailer after it stops sourcing from the region, escalating a clash between Beijing and Western companies."

• U.S. Blocked Uniqlo Shirts on Xinjiang Forced-Labor Concerns (Bloomberg, May 19, 2021). As Adrian Zenz points out: "U.S. Customs and Border Protection is not releasing Uniqlo shirts despite initial evidence produced by Uniqlo. The CBP requires Uniqlo to provide comprehensive evidence that they are not made with Uyghur forced labor, setting a very high bar."

• Japan’s Muji Appeals to China by Advertising Use of Xinjiang Cotton (by Megumi Fujikawa in WSJ, May 11, 2021): “On its online store in China, Muji includes the words ‘Xinjiang cotton’ next to several items. The move was well-received by Chinese social-network users, some of whom said on the Twitter-like Weibo platform that they recognized the company’s eagerness to stay on the country’s good side. Muji executives have said they see China as a growth driver after the company’s U.S. unit was forced last year to seek protection under U.S. bankruptcy laws. Muji expects to have more than 300 stores in China by August.”

• Krish Raghav's lessons "learned from one year at a craft beer brewery / bar in Beijing" - see also this comic.

- - -

Sign up to get Mark's weekly email newsletter. You can also join Mark's Creative Good community.

PAST EPISODES: techtonic.fm lists recent Techtonic shows

PODCAST: Subscribe to the Techtonic podcast