The chairmen of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) on June 1 called on NBA players to end endorsement deals with Chinese sportswear firms that are linked to forced labor.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), in a letter to National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) President Chris Paul and Executive Director Michele Roberts, expressed concern over contracts that more than a dozen NBA players have signed with firms that include Anta, Li-Ning, and Peak, which have all admitted to using cotton produced in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China.
The commission’s letter to the labor union comes amid reports that hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have been forced to pick cotton in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region. More than 1 million Uyghurs, the majority of whom practice Islam, and other ethnic minorities, reportedly have been held in internment camps in the region and undergo torture and other abuses.
“Players have continued to sign new deals with Anta Sports,” Merkley and McGovern wrote in their letter.
“We believe that commercial relationships with companies that source cotton in Xinjiang create reputational risks for NBA players and the NBA itself,” they said, noting that the U.S. government has determined China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and barred cotton imports from the region.
“The NBA and NBA players should not even implicitly be endorsing such horrific human rights abuses,” the letter states.
The CECC cited its own documentation that since 2018, there has been credible evidence to show that forced labor exists in Xinjiang’s cotton production.
“Ethnic minority workers who pick cotton in Xinjiang are subjected to close monitoring and control, and individuals have been detained for refusing to take part in such work programs,” they said.
