Weekend Box: Uyghur labour,
Welcome to The Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business, and cultural news from around the world.
UYGHUR FORCED LABOUR LAW IN FORCE
The Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act (the UFLPA), which was signed into law by President Biden in December and came into force on Tuesday, is the culmination of over two years of efforts by U.S. officials to step up pressure on American businesses sourcing from Xinjiang. The UFLPA will presume that all items manufactured in Xinjiang, or by organisations connected with the government there, are made by the thousands of Uyghur and other Muslim minorities who are detained in the internment camps and forced to work “at a fraction of minimum wage or without any compensation." The law builds upon existing measures: an import ban on cotton, and tomatoes; restrictions on purchasing polysilicon; and the introduction of several ‘withhold release orders’, an enforcement tool by border authorities that enables them to stop shipments from Xinjiang believed to be made with forced labour until proven otherwise.
Prior to the UFLPA, the responsibility was on U.S. customs officials to provide evidence of the absence of forced labour when they confiscated such shipments. The UFLPA, however, places the onus on companies to evidence that their imported goods were not manufactured under such conditions, a redirection in policy that will directly impact electronics, agricultural goods, and other products. Whilst it is still unclear as to what documentation will be sufficient to demonstrate this, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai Ker Gibbs has said that proving that the imported goods are not connected to human rights abuses will be “next to impossible.”
Whilst workers’ rights activists have lauded the new law as an effective means to reduce the practice of forced labour in Xinjiang by “eliminating a large part of the market” for its goods, many fear that it could have significant consequences for American companies and consumers. It is likely that U.S. authorities will detain or turn away a huge number of imported products, which will cause further supply chain disruptions. It could also further inflame inflation, which is already running at a four-decade high in the U.S., if companies are forced to seek more expensive products or consumers start to compete for products in short supply. This, in turn, may prompt more global supply chains to move out of China. Although the full ramifications remain to be seen, a former commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection told The New York Times that the impact of the ULFPA will be “measured in the many billions of dollars, not in the millions of dollars.”
In spite of the possible repercussions for American companies and citizens, U.S. lawmakers remain “committed to ending the abhorrent practice of forced labour around the globe” and ensuring that only “legitimate products can reach American ports and consumers.” Already the government has ramped up its capacity for checking and detaining goods. John M. Foote, a partner in the international trade and practice group at Kelley Drye and Warren, said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has poured in $5.6m to hire 65 new people this year for forced labour enforcement, and has set aside $10m for overtime pay to deal with detentions at its ports. Next year, the White House has requested $70m to create 300 full-time positions, including customs officers and trade analysts. In a note to clients, Foote wrote that these amounts compete or go beyond other government enforcement bureaus. He went on to express that any company with a supply chain in America will have to consider that its products could face rigorous scrutiny or detention, adding: “There is almost no company in the United States currently truly prepared for this type of enforcement.”
China has rejected the allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang, with a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry stating that it is a huge lie “concocted by anti-China” forces to smear the country, “create forced unemployment[,]” “[encourage] the world to decouple with China,” and contain its development.
TOYOTA HITS A BUMP
Toyota has issued a global recall of its fleet of 2,700 2023 bZ4X electric crossover SUVs, falling further behind in the automotive race to compete with the clean energy juggernaut Tesla.
On Thursday, the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer issued the recall of its first mass-produced battery powered vehicle, cautioning that the hubs and bolts on the bZ4X's wheels “can loosen to the point where the wheel can detach from the vehicle" after “low-mileage use.” In a statement released today, a spokesperson for the company hammered home the warning that “no one should drive these vehicles until the remedy is performed.” Among the 2,700 vehicles subject to recall, 2,200 were en route to Europe, 280 to America, 110 to Japan, and the rest to other Asia territories. Fortunately for both the consumer and Toyota, most of the vehicles had not been delivered and, thus far, no injuries or incidents have been reported. Meanwhile, the automotive company told the BBC that it had notified Japanese safety regulators about the defect on Thursday but that the cause was “still under investigation.”
It goes without saying that the recall of its bZ4X vehicles just two months after they were launched is a huge blow to Toyota’s aspirations, and its pockets. Last year, it poured $35bn into the race for carbon neutrality and vowed to roll out 30 battery-powered models by 2030, a clear attempt to set itself up in direct rivalry with Tesla. If the recall itself wasn’t bad enough, it came the day after Toyota announced a drastic cut in its global target for July. It has now forecast that only 800,000 cars will be produced per month, down 50,000 from initial estimates, because of supply chain disruptions and a shortage of computer chips. Although Toyota aims to manufacture 9.7m vehicles around the world this year, the inference is that this number is overly optimistic.
ANY PLANS FOR JULY?
It’s now one week to go until the start of the 2022 Tour de France, during which road cycling fans will be found teaming in France, glued all day to their TV screens or perhaps surreptitiously keeping an eye on a window in the laptop screens while trying to concentrate on their work, our in-house cycling correspondent reports.
Why should the uninitiated care about this annual event each July? Well, there are so many aspects to appreciate, typically characterised by drama, heroism and intrigue.
The event has been synonymous with drama ever since the first Tour in 1903. Conceived to revive a struggling newspaper, L’Auto, the three-week Tour would see its correspondent report on the heroic exploits of a group of 60 professional and amateur athletes as they rode, unsupported, around France on their hefty fixed-gear bikes, covering some 1500km. Day stages were often well in excess of 200km and included the most challenging mountain stages in the Alps and Pyrenees that the organisers could devise. Famously, in 1910, after dragging himself over the finish line of one such stage – 326km long, with seven brutal alpine climbs – rider Octave Lapize looked at Tour officials and yelled, ‘Vous êtes des assassins! Oui, des assassins!', 'You are murderers! Yes, murderers!'.
The stage lengths are slightly less beastly these days, with most being inside 200km, but they still take in the most challenging and stunning routes through France. On the flatter stages, the peloton (the riders en masse) speeds along at an average of over 50kph, which is the limit for many amateur riders in a flat-out sprint. Professional riders are exceptional creatures, whose fitness, toughness and skill can only be really appreciated by attempting just one of the 21 stages that they complete, as many amateur riders do each year on the L’Etape du Tour, riding the penultimate stage a day ahead of the pros. Think of a sprinter like UK veteran Mark Cavendish, who came back from illness last year to smash his way to four stage wins and a joint career record of 34 overall. To compete as a sprinter, he has to complete every stage (including those beastly mountains) before being guided by his ‘domestique’ teammates on the sprint stages in a lead-out towards the front of the group. Only at that point will he unleash his full power – over 1000 watts through the pedals - and sharp elbows to race to the line at speeds of over 70kph.
The speed and number of riders, around 200, taking every opportunity to ‘attack’ or gain time, mean that crashes are frequent and brutal, occasionally even fatal. Yet the riders who can stand up again just remount and continue. Recent Tour de Suisse and 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, from Wales, crashed heavily in 2013 and was subsequently found to have fractured his pelvis, yet continued the rest of the Tour, helping his teammate Chris Froome to win. In short, they’re tough.
All this drama and heroism is typically matched with intrigue and frequent dodgy practice. Drugs and other forms of cheating are never far away in professional cycling – they always have been. The nadir was in the 90s and early Noughties, when Lance Armstrong won seven General Classification wins that were subsequently stripped from him for doping. These days, the testing regime, average speeds, and diversity of winners suggest that the majority are clean, but suspect performances still occur. All part of the intrigue!
The scoring and tactics can be complex, but good explanations can be found online, such as here. Watching each stage unfold and the tension rise, against the epic background of the French countryside is what it’s all about. Good commentary is key, and these days teams such as GCN’s or ITV’s do a great job in making the Tour more accessible. And no appreciation of the Tour would be complete by focusing only on the men's race. The Tour de France Femmes, following the men's race on 24th July, is every bit as captivating across its eight stages, meaning the whole of July can be devoted to the thrills and spills of the Tour. ‘Chapeau!’ to them all and here’s to the marvellous spectacle of the Tour.
EUROPEAN DISUNION
In a time of conflict that has rocked Europe, political fault lines have spread through two EU member nations, raising questions about how each country will move forward. While in France, legislative elections have dealt a crushing blow to Emmanuel Macron, in Bulgaria Prime Minister Kiril Petkov is facing an end to his time in power after only six months.
Sunday’s legislative elections in France saw President Macron’s centrist coalition Ensemble Citoyens take 245 seats in parliament, falling 44 seats short of gaining an absolute majority. The president must now concede control of the parliament to two legislative groups, both led by former rivals for the title of president and both representing opposite poles of French politics: Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-wing coalition New Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES), which won 131 seats, and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, who won 89 seats to become the largest single opposition party.
In an address to the nation on Wednesday, President Macron did not dwell on his defeat, rather highlighting the opportunity for progress represented by the new parliament. While acknowledging the polarised results were clear evidence of persistent issues in French society, the president said the parties could now cooperate to address these, if they were willing to – in an interesting choice of words – move "beyond politics[.]”
Whether Macron has ultimately lost control of parliament remains to be seen.
In Bulgaria, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov may have lost control of the country, after his government was defeated in a motion of no-confidence. The coalition government, which came to power only six months ago, failed to gain the 121 votes it would have needed to survive, falling short at 116.
A loss was forecast for Prime Minister Petkov after Slavi Trifonov of the party There Is Such a People (ITN) withdrew his ministers from the coalition government. Trifonov’s deliberate action to ‘put an end’ to the coalition has been interpreted as a reaction to the prime minister’s promises to address corruption in Bulgarian politics. A number of ITN lawmakers who have sided with Petkov have claimed that the party is associated with the country’s ‘oligarchic mafia’, a claim Trifonov violently denies.
The prime minister is understood to now be seeking to form a new government, in the hopes of preventing another general election. If he is not successful, it will be Bulgaria’s fourth since April of last year, and a blow to the anti-corruption lobby.
RUNNING UP THAT CHART
It's taken 37 years but Kate Bush's seminal hit ‘Running Up That Hill’ has finally landed the top spot in the charts. With her song at Number 1 in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK, at 63 Bush is the oldest woman to secure a chart-topper and the song now holds the record for the longest time taken to get to Number 1. A prime spot in the cult Netflix show Stranger Things saw Bush catapulted into the consciousness of a whole new generation.
Since the first volume of the fourth series of Stranger Things first aired at the end of May, the song has gradually climbed the charts, until it ultimately hit the top spot in the UK last week. The song has had 57m global plays as of last week, and as of today, a 4-minute clip of the episode which features the song has received 7.8 million views on the Netflix’s YouTube channel Still Watching Netflix.
It's not the first time Bush has had such a resurgence. In 2012, a remix of the song, with newly recorded vocals, was used during the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics. The song only reached the slightly less dizzying heights of number six on that occasion, which begs the question as to whether the behemoth that is Netflix (declining subscribers and shares aside) is quite possibly the ultimate arbiter of taste these days, platforming culture in a way that can't be matched by anyone or anything else.
So, what is it that has piqued global audiences' interest with this tale of chart success? Perhaps it's the otherwise lack of permanence in music these days. There is, without doubt, a heightened sense of music makers being here one minute and gone the next. Trends come and go far more quickly in the age of social media. This, coupled with the ever-stretched attention span of younger generations, frenetically switching between devices, between apps, between songs and between tastes, means it has become more and more difficult for artists to become music mainstays today as the likes of Bush once were.
Of the renewed success, the ever-humble Bush told Radio 4 she thought that "the world has gone mad", but that the success was "quite extraordinary". Of her newest fans, Bush declared: "The thought of all these really young people hearing the song for the first time and discovering it is, well, I think it's very special". With Volume 2 of this series of Stranger Things just around the corner (Friday July 1st), only time will tell what cult classic might be topping the charts next month…
And that’s it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at cwilkins@audley.uk.com.
For now, that’s the weekend box officially closed.