The Godfather's Daughter

China factory for Ivanka Trump brand shoes criticized for labor violations
By Kevin McCoy

File photo taken in June 2017 shows men at the entrance gate of a Huajian Group shoe factory in Ganzhou, in southeastern China's Jiangxi Province.

A China factory that has produced shoes for the Ivanka Trump brand is the worst labor rule violator among dozens of similar production facilities checked by undercover investigators, an advocacy organization said Wednesday.
Workers at the Huajian factory in Jiangxi, a province in southeast China, typically put in 15-hour days, with just two days off each month, according to a report by China Labor Watch, a group that since 2000 has investigated workplace conditions at Chinese facilities that supply many of the world's best-known companies and brands.
Workers assigned to produce shoes for Easy Spirit's brand were forced to remain at work until 1:30 a.m. making changes in late May after a representative of the U.S. company complained that the manufacturing work was of "inferior quality," the report said.
The factory's employees were verbally and physically abused, and had to wait until late April to receive payment for hours they worked in March, the report said.

Additionally, the workers were paid roughly $352 for 350 monthly work hours, below that China's labor law stipulates, the report added.
Along with producing shoes for the Trump brand and Easy Spirit, the factory has done work for such well-known U.S. companies as Marc Fisher Footwear, Nine West, Karl Lagerfeld, Naturalizer, and Guess, the report said.
Nonetheless, the factory "is the worst among the dozens of factories we have investigated over the past year," the report concluded.
Factory representatives could not be located for comment.
Three undercover investigators for China Labor Watch who checked the production center and interviewed workers in March or April abruptly disappeared in May and are believed to have been arrested by Chinese authorities. 

“We urge China to release them immediately and otherwise afford them the judicial and fair trial protections to which they are entitled,” Alicia Edwards, a U.S. Department of State spokeswoman, said in a statement earlier this month.
China has rejected calls for the men's release.
"So far, we haven't heard anything," Li Qiang, the advocacy group's executive director, said in a telephone interview conducted through a Mandarin translator on Wednesday. 

He repeated previous entreaties for Trump's company and other U.S. manufacturers to help win the investigators' release.
Trump removed herself from day-to-day involvement with her brand in January. 

Her spokeswoman did not respond to an email seeking comment. 

In a written statement, Ivanka Trump President Abigail Klem said the company's shoes had not been produced at the factory since March.
"Our licensee works with many footwear production factories and all factories are required to operate within strict social compliance regulations," the statement said.
Marc Fisher, Trump's footwear licensee, said it "does not comment on its business procedures or strategies." 

Other companies cited in the China Labor Watch report did not respond to emails seeking comment.

The Chinese Connection

Arrested, missing China activists spark criticism of Trump

By ERIKA KINETZ

China Labor Watch investigator Hua Haifeng
SHANGHAI — The arrest and disappearance of three labor activists investigating a Chinese company that produces Ivanka Trump shoes in China prompted a call for her brand to stop working with the supplier and raised questions about whether the first family’s commercial interests would muddy U.S. leadership on human rights.
“Ivanka’s brand should immediately cease its work with this supplier, and the Trump administration should reverse its current course and confront China on its human rights abuses,” Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said in a Wednesday email. 

Ivanka Trump must decide, she added, “whether she can ignore the Chinese government’s apparent attempt to silence an investigation into those worker abuses.”
Amnesty International called Wednesday for the release of China Labor Watch investigator Hua Haifeng, as well as his two colleagues, who are feared to have been detained.
The men were working with an American nonprofit group to publish a report next month alleging low pay, excessive overtime and misuse of student labor, according to China Labor Watch executive director Li Qiang, who lost contact with the investigators over the weekend. 

The investigators also witnessed verbal abuse, with one manager insulting staff about poorly made shoes and making a crude reference in Chinese to female genitalia, according to Mr. Li.
China Labor Watch has been exposing poor working conditions at suppliers to some of the world’s best-known companies for nearly two decades, but Mr. Li said his work has never before attracted this level of scrutiny from China’s state security apparatus.
The arrest and disappearances come amid a crackdown on perceived threats to the stability of China’s ruling Communist Party, particularly from sources with foreign ties such as China Labor Watch. Faced with rising labor unrest and a slowing economy, Beijing has taken a stern approach to activism in southern China’s manufacturing belt and to human rights advocates generally, sparking a wave of critical reports about disappearances, public confessions, forced repatriation and torture in custody.
China Labor Watch’s investigation also had an unusual target: a brand owned by the daughter of the president of the United States.
Ivanka Trump’s lifestyle brand imports most of its merchandise from China, trade data show. 

She and her father both have extensive trademark portfolios in China, though neither has managed to build up a large retail or real estate presence here. 

The sister of Jared Kushner, a Trump adviser and husband of Ivanka, traveled to China this past month to court investment from Chinese families for a real estate project in New Jersey.
“The eagerness of members of the family to do business in China while airbrushing very troubling human rights and labor rights records of the country is troubling,” said Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director for Amnesty International. 

He said it is only a matter of time before it is known “to what extent business is trumping any kind of consideration of the diplomatic capital of the U.S. in promoting human rights, labor rights and democracy.”
White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks referred questions to Trump’s brand. 

The Ivanka Trump brand declined to comment.
Abigail Klem, who took over day-to-day management when the first daughter became a White House presidential adviser, has said the brand requires licensees and their manufacturers to “comply with all applicable laws and to maintain acceptable working conditions.”
China tightened control over foreign NGOs starting this year by requiring them to register with state security. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing Wednesday that she was not aware of the arrest and disappearances. 

She said China welcomed international NGOs to carry out research, but added, “we also hope that NGOs can also observe Chinese laws and regulations and don’t engage in any illegal actions or behavior.”
Mr. Hua was accused of illegal surveillance, according to his wife, Ms. Deng Guilian, who said the police called her Tuesday afternoon. 

Ms. Deng said the caller told her she didn’t need to know the details, only that she would not be able to see, speak with or receive money from her husband, the family’s breadwinner. 

The crime carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment.
Mr. Li said China Labor Watch asked police about Mr. Hua and the two other investigators, Li Zhao and Su Heng, on Monday but received no reply.
The Associated Press was unable to reach the other investigators’ families. 

China’s Ministry of Public Security and police could not be reached for comment Tuesday, which was a national holiday in China. 

Calls went unanswered Wednesday morning.
The men were investigating Huajian Group factories in the southern Chinese cities of Ganzhou and Dongguan. 

Ms. Su had been working undercover at the Ganzhou factory since April, Mr. Li said.
In January, Liu Shiyuan, then spokesman for the Huajian Group, told the AP that the company makes 10,000 to 20,000 pairs of shoes a year for Ms. Trump’s brand — a fraction of the 20 million pairs the company produces a year. 

A current spokeswoman for the company, Long Shan, did not reply to questions Tuesday or Wednesday morning.
Mr. Li said investigators had seen Ivanka Trump-brand merchandise, as well as production orders for Ivanka Trump, Marc Fisher, Nine West and Easy Spirit.
“We were unaware of the allegations and will look into them immediately,” a spokeswoman for Marc Fisher, which manufactures Ivanka Trump, Easy Spirit and its own branded shoes, said in an email Tuesday. 

Nine West did not respond to requests for comment.