[2022-06-21] NYT - 中国汽车电池供应链中发现强迫劳动的危险信号

 

By Ana Swanson and Chris Buckley
June 20, 2022
Updated 8:11 a.m. ET
安娜·斯旺森和克里斯·巴克利
2022 年 6 月 20 日
美国东部时间上午 8 点 11 分更新

The photograph on the mining conglomerate’s social media account showed 70 ethnic Uyghur workers standing at attention under the flag of the People’s Republic of China. It was March 2020 and the recruits would soon undergo training in management, etiquette and “loving the party and the country,” their new employer, the Xinjiang Nonferrous Metal Industry Group, announced.
这家矿业集团社交媒体账户上的照片显示，70 名维吾尔族工人站在中华人民共和国国旗下。 2020 年 3 月，他们的新雇主新疆有色金属工业集团宣布，新员工将很快接受管理、礼仪和“爱党爱国”的培训。

But this was no ordinary worker orientation. It was the kind of program that human rights groups and U.S. officials consider a red flag for forced labor in China’s western Xinjiang region, where the Communist authorities have detained or imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs and members of other largely Muslim minorities.
但这不是普通的工人导向。 这种计划被人权组织和美国官员认为是中国西部新疆地区强迫劳动的危险信号，共产党当局拘留或监禁了超过 100 万维吾尔人、哈萨克人和其他主要是穆斯林少数民族的成员。

The scene also represents a potential problem for the global effort to fight climate change.
这一场景也代表了全球应对气候变化的潜在问题。

China produces three-quarters of the world’s lithium ion batteries, and almost all the metals needed to make them are processed there. Much of the material, though, is actually mined elsewhere, in places like Argentina, Australia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uncomfortable with relying on other countries, the Chinese government has increasingly turned to western China’s mineral wealth as a way to shore up scarce supplies.
中国生产了全球四分之三的锂离子电池，几乎所有制造它们所需的金属都在中国加工。 然而，大部分材料实际上是在其他地方开采的，比如阿根廷、澳大利亚和刚果民主共和国。 由于对依赖其他国家感到不安，中国政府越来越多地将中国西部的矿产资源作为支撑稀缺供应的一种方式。

That means companies like the Xinjiang Nonferrous Metal Industry Group are assuming a larger role in the supply chain behind the batteries that power electric vehicles and store renewable energy — even as China’s draconian crackdown on minorities in Xinjiang fuels outrage around the world.
这意味着新疆有色金属工业集团等公司正在为电动汽车和存储可再生能源的电池背后的供应链发挥更大的作用——尽管中国对新疆少数民族的严厉镇压激起了全世界的愤怒。

The Chinese government denies the presence of forced labor in Xinjiang, calling it “the lie of the century.” But it acknowledges running what it describes as a work transfer program that sends Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities from the region’s more rural south to jobs in its more industrialized north.
中国政府否认新疆存在强迫劳动，称其为“世纪谎言”。 但它承认正在运行它所描述的工作转移计划，该计划将维吾尔人和其他少数民族从该地区更农村的南部转移到工业化程度更高的北部工作。

Xinjiang Nonferrous and its subsidiaries have partnered with the Chinese authorities to take in hundreds of such workers in recent years, according to articles displayed proudly in Chinese on the company’s social media account. These workers were eventually sent to work in the conglomerate’s mines, a smelter and factories that produce some of the most highly sought minerals on earth, including lithium, nickel, manganese, beryllium, copper and gold.
根据该公司社交媒体账户上自豪地展示的中文文章，近年来，新疆有色及其子公司与中国当局合作接收了数百名此类工人。 这些工人最终被派往该集团的矿山、冶炼厂和生产地球上一些最受追捧的矿物的工厂工作，包括锂、镍、锰、铍、铜和金。

It is difficult to trace precisely where the metals produced by Xinjiang Nonferrous go. But some have been exported to the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and India, according to company statements and customs records. And some have gone to large Chinese battery makers, who in turn, directly or indirectly, supply major American entities, including automakers, energy companies and the U.S. military, according to Chinese news reports.
新疆有色生产的金属去哪儿了，很难准确追查。 但根据公司声明和海关记录，其中一些已出口到美国、德国、英国、日本、韩国和印度。 据中国新闻报道，其中一些去了中国大型电池制造商手中，这些制造商又直接或间接地向美国主要实体供货，包括汽车制造商、能源公司和美国军方。

It is unclear whether these relationships are ongoing, and Xinjiang Nonferrous did not respond to requests for comment.
目前尚不清楚这些关系是否仍在持续，新疆有色也没有回应置评请求。

But this previously unreported connection between critical minerals and the kind of work transfer programs in Xinjiang that the U.S. government and others have called a form of forced labor could portend trouble for industries that depend on these materials, including the global auto sector.
但这种此前未曾报道的关键矿产与新疆工作转移计划之间的联系被美国政府和其他人称为一种强迫劳动形式，这可能预示着依赖这些材料的行业（包括全球汽车行业）会遇到麻烦。

A new law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, goes into effect in the United States on Tuesday and will bar products that were made in Xinjiang or have ties to the work programs there from entering the country. It requires importers with any ties to Xinjiang to produce documentation showing that their products, and every raw material they are made with, are free of forced labor — a tricky undertaking given the complexity and opacity of Chinese supply chains.
一项名为《维吾尔族强迫劳动预防法》的新法律于周二在美国生效，将禁止在新疆制造或与那里的工作项目有关的产品进入该国。 它要求与新疆有任何联系的进口商出示文件，证明他们的产品以及制造它们的每一种原材料都没有强迫劳动——鉴于中国供应链的复杂性和不透明性，这是一项棘手的工作。

The apparel, food and solar industries have already been upended by reports linking their supply chains in Xinjiang to forced labor. Solar companies last year were forced to halt billions of dollars of projects as they investigated their supply chains.
有报道称，服装、食品和太阳能行业已经将其在新疆的供应链与强迫劳动联系起来。 去年，太阳能公司在调查供应链时被迫停止了数十亿美元的项目。

The global battery industry could face its own disruptions given Xinjiang’s deep ties to the raw materials needed for next-generation technology.
鉴于新疆与下一代技术所需的原材料有着深厚的联系，全球电池行业可能面临自身的混乱。

Trade experts have estimated that thousands of global companies may actually have some link to Xinjiang in their supply chains. If the United States fully enforces the new law, it could result in many products being blocked at the border, including those needed for electric vehicles and renewable energy projects.
贸易专家估计，数以千计的全球公司实际上可能在其供应链中与新疆有一些联系。 如果美国全面执行新法律，可能会导致许多产品在边境被封锁，包括电动汽车和可再生能源项目所需的产品。

Some administration officials raised objections to cutting off shipments of all Chinese goods linked with Xinjiang, arguing that it would be disruptive to the U.S. economy and the clean energy transition.
一些政府官员反对切断与新疆有关的所有中国商品的运输，认为这将破坏美国经济和清洁能源转型。

Representative Thomas R. Suozzi, a Democrat from New York who helped create the Congressional Uyghur Caucus, said that while banning products from the Xinjiang region might make goods go up in price, “it’s too damn bad.”
帮助创建国会维吾尔核心小组的纽约民主党众议员托马斯·R·索齐(Thomas R. Suozzi)表示，虽然禁止新疆地区的产品可能会使商品价格上涨，但“这太糟糕了”。

“We can’t continue to do business with people that are violating basic human rights,” he said.
“我们不能继续与侵犯基本人权的人做生意，”他说。

To understand how reliant the battery industry is on China, consider the country’s role in producing the materials that are critical to the technology. While many of the metals used in batteries today are mined elsewhere, almost all of the processing required to turn those materials into batteries takes place in China. The country processes 50 to 100 percent of the world’s lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite, and makes 80 percent of the cells that power lithium ion batteries, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a research firm.
要了解电池行业对中国的依赖程度，请考虑中国在生产对技术至关重要的材料方面的作用。 虽然今天电池中使用的许多金属都是在其他地方开采的，但将这些材料变成电池所需的几乎所有加工过程都在中国进行。 根据研究公司 Benchmark Mineral Intelligence 的数据，中国加工了全球 50% 到 100% 的锂、镍、钴、锰和石墨，并生产了 80% 的锂离子电池动力电池。

“If you were to look at any electric vehicle battery, there would be some involvement from China,” said Daisy Jennings-Gray, a senior analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence 的高级分析师 Daisy Jennings-Gray 表示：“如果你看任何电动汽车电池，中国都会参与其中。”

The materials Xinjiang Nonferrous has produced — including a dizzying array of valuable minerals, like zinc, beryllium, cobalt, vanadium, lead, copper, gold, platinum and palladium — have gone into a wide variety of consumer products, including pharmaceuticals, jewelry, building materials and electronics. The company also claims to be one of China’s largest producers of lithium metal, and its second-largest producer of nickel cathode, which can be used to make batteries, stainless steel and other goods.
新疆有色生产的材料——包括令人眼花缭乱的一系列有价值的矿物，如锌、铍、钴、钒、铅、铜、金、铂和钯——已进入各种消费品，包括药品、珠宝、建筑 材料和电子。 该公司还声称是中国最大的锂金属生产商之一，也是其第二大阴极镍生产商，可用于制造电池、不锈钢和其他商品。

 

In recent years, the company has expanded into Xinjiang’s south, the homeland of most Uyghurs, acquiring valuable new deposits that executives describe as “critical” to China’s resource security.
近年来，该公司已将业务扩展到大多数维吾尔人的家乡新疆南部，获得了高管们称其对中国资源安全“至关重要”的宝贵新矿床。

Ma Xingrui, a former aerospace engineer who was appointed Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang in 2021, has talked up Xinjiang’s prospects as a source of high-tech materials. This month, he told executives from Xinjiang Nonferrous and other state-owned companies that they should “step up” in new energy, materials and other strategic sectors.
2021 年被任命为新疆党委书记的前航天工程师马兴瑞谈到了新疆作为高科技材料来源地的前景。 本月，他告诉新疆有色和其他国有企业的高管，他们应该在新能源、材料等战略领域“加大力度”。

Xinjiang Nonferrous’s role in work transfer programs ramped up several years ago, as part of efforts by the Chinese leader Xi Jinping to drastically transform Uyghur society to become richer, more secular and loyal to the Communist Party. In 2017, the Xinjiang government announced plans to transfer 100,000 people from southern Xinjiang into new jobs over three years. Dozens of state-owned companies, including Xinjiang Nonferrous, were assigned to absorb 10,000 of those laborers in return for subsidies and bonuses.
几年前，新疆有色在工作转移项目中的作用有所增加，这是中国领导人希望为彻底改变维吾尔社会，使其变得更富裕、更世俗化和对共产党忠诚的努力的一部分。 2017年，新疆政府宣布计划在三年内将10万人从南疆转移到新的就业岗位。 包括新疆有色在内的数十家国有企业被派去吸纳10,000名劳动力，以换取补贴和奖金。

Transferred workers appear to make up only a minor part of the labor force at Xinjiang Nonferrous, perhaps a few hundred of its more than 7,000 employees. The company and its subsidiaries reported recruiting 644 workers from two rural counties of southern Xinjiang from 2017 to 2020, and training more since then.
转移的工人似乎只占新疆有色的一小部分劳动力，在其 7000 多名员工中可能只有几百人。 该公司及其子公司报告称，从 2017 年到 2020 年，从南疆两个农村县招聘了 644 名工人，此后培训更多。

Some laborers were sent to the company’s copper-nickel mine and smelter, which are operated by Xinjiang Xinxin Mining Industry, a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary that has received investment from the state of Alaska, the University of Texas system and Vanguard. Other laborers went to subsidiaries that produce lithium, manganese and gold.
部分工人被派往该公司的铜镍矿和冶炼厂，该厂由香港上市子公司新疆新鑫矿业经营，该公司已获得阿拉斯加州、德克萨斯大学系统和先锋集团的投资。 其他劳工去了生产锂、锰和黄金的子公司。

Before being assigned to work, predominantly Muslim minorities were given lectures on “eradicating religious extremism” and becoming obedient, law-abiding workers who “embraced their Chinese nationhood,” Xinjiang Nonferrous said.
新疆有色表示，在被分配工作之前，以穆斯林为主的少数民族接受了关于“铲除宗教极端主义”的讲座，并成为“拥抱中华民族”的听话、守法的工人。

Inductees for one company unit underwent six months of training including military-style drills and ideological training. They were encouraged to speak out against religious extremism, oppose “two-faced individuals” — a term for those who privately oppose Chinese government policies — and write a letter to their hometown elders expressing gratitude to the Communist Party and the company, according to the company’s social media account. Trainees faced strict assessments, with “morality” and rule compliance accounting for half of their score. Those who scored well earned better pay, while students and teachers who violated rules were punished or fined.
一个连队的入伍人员接受了六个月的训练，包括军训和思想训练。 鼓励他们公开反对宗教极端主义，反对“两面派”——私下反对中国政府政策的人——并写信给家乡的长辈，表达对共产党和公司的感谢。 公司的社交媒体帐户。 学员们面临着严格的考核，“道德”和遵守规则的分数占了一半。 得分高的人获得更高的报酬，而违反规则的学生和教师则受到处罚或罚款。

Even as it promotes the successes of the programs, the company’s propaganda hints at the government pressure on it to meet labor transfer goals, even through the coronavirus pandemic.
即使在宣传这些项目取得成功的同时，该公司的宣传也暗示政府对其施加压力，以实现劳动力转移目标，即使在武汉肺炎大流行期间也是如此。

A 2017 article in the Xinjiang Daily quoted one 33-year-old villager as saying that he was initially “reluctant to go out to work” and “quite satisfied” with his income from farming, but was persuaded to go to work at Xinjiang Nonferrous’ subsidiary after party members visited his house several times to “work on his thinking.” And in a visit in 2018 to Keriya County, Zhang Guohua, the company president, told officials to “work on the thinking” of families of transferred laborers to ensure that no one abandoned their jobs.
新疆日报 2017 年的一篇文章援引一名 33 岁村民的话说，他最初“不愿外出工作”，对自己的务农收入“相当满意”，但被劝说到新疆有色工作。 ’党员多次到他家“研究他的思想”。 在 2018 年对克里雅县的一次访问中，公司总裁张国华告诉官员们要“思考”转移劳工家庭的想法，以确保没有人放弃自己的工作。

Chinese authorities say that all employment is voluntary, and that work transfers help free rural families from poverty by giving them steady wages, skills and Chinese-language training.
中国当局表示，所有就业都是自愿的，工作转移通过为农村家庭提供稳定的工资、技能和中文培训，帮助他们摆脱贫困。

“No one has been forced to become ‘transferred labor’ in Xinjiang,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, told reporters in Beijing this month.
中国外交部发言人汪文斌本月在北京对记者说：“新疆没有人被迫成为‘转移劳动力’。”

It is difficult to ascertain the level of coercion any individual worker has faced given the limited access to Xinjiang for journalists and research firms. Laura T. Murphy, a professor of human rights and contemporary slavery at Sheffield Hallam University in Britain, said that resisting such programs is seen as a sign of extremist activity and carries a risk of being sent to an internment camp.
鉴于记者和研究公司进入新疆的机会有限，很难确定任何个体工人所面临的胁迫程度。 英国谢菲尔德哈勒姆大学人权与当代奴隶制教授劳拉·墨菲（Laura T. Murphy）表示，抵制此类计划被视为极端主义活动的标志，并有被送往拘留营的风险。

“A Uyghur person cannot say no to this,” she said. “They are harassed or, in the government’s words, educated,’ until they are forced to go.”
“维吾尔人不能对此说不，”她说。 “他们受到骚扰，或者用政府的话来说，是受过教育，直到他们被迫离开。”

Files from police servers in Xinjiang published by the BBC last month described a shoot-to-kill policy for those trying to escape from internment camps, as well as mandatory blindfolds and shackles for “students” being transferred between facilities.
BBC 上个月公布的新疆警方服务器文件描述了对试图逃离拘禁营的人的枪决政策，以及对在设施之间转移的“学生”强制戴上眼罩和镣铐。

Other Chinese metal and mining companies also appear to be linked with labor transfers at a smaller scale, including Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd., which has acquired cobalt and lithium assets around the globe, and Xinjiang TBEA Group Co. Ltd., which makes aluminum for lithium battery cathodes, according to media reports and academic research. Other entities that were previously sanctioned by the United States over human rights abuses are also involved in the supply chain for graphite, a key battery material that is only refined in China, according to Horizon Advisory, a research firm.
其他中国金属和矿业公司似乎也与规模较小的劳动力转移有关，包括已在全球范围内收购钴和锂资产的紫金矿业集团有限公司和新疆特变电工集团有限公司。 据媒体报道和学术研究表明，铝用于锂电池正极。 据研究公司地平线咨询公司称，此前因侵犯人权而受到美国制裁的其他实体也参与了石墨的供应链，石墨是一种仅在中国精炼的关键电池材料。

 

The raw materials that these laborers produce disappear into complex and secretive supply chains, often passing through multiple companies as they are turned into auto parts, electronics and other goods. While that makes them difficult to trace, records show that Xinjiang Nonferrous has developed multiple potential channels to the United States. Many more of the company’s materials are likely transformed in Chinese factories into other products before they are sent abroad.
这些劳工生产的原材料消失在复杂而隐秘的供应链中，往往经过多家公司，变成汽车零部件、电子产品和其他商品。 虽然这使他们难以追查，但记录显示，新疆有色已经开发了多个通往美国的潜在渠道。 该公司的更多材料可能会在中国工厂转化为其他产品，然后再运往国外。

For example, Xinjiang Nonferrous is a current supplier to the China operations of Livent Corporation, a chemical giant with headquarters in the United States that uses lithium to produce a chemical used to make automobile interiors and tires, hospital equipment, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and electronics.
例如，新疆有色是 Livent Corporation 在中国业务的当前供应商，Livent Corporation 是一家总部位于美国的化工巨头，使用锂生产一种用于制造汽车内饰和轮胎、医院设备、药品、农用化学品和电子产品的化学品。

A Livent spokesman said that the firm prohibits forced labor among its vendors, and that its due diligence had not indicated any red flags. Livent did not respond to a question about whether products made with materials from Xinjiang are exported to the United States.
Livent 的一位发言人表示，该公司禁止其供应商之间的强迫劳动，其尽职调查并未显示任何危险信号。 Livent没有回答有关新疆材料制成的产品是否出口到美国的问题。

In theory, the new U.S. law should block all goods made with any raw materials that are associated with Xinjiang until they are proven to be free of slavery or coercive labor practices. But it remains to be seen if the U.S. government is willing or able to turn away such an array of foreign goods.
理论上，新的美国法律应该禁止所有使用与新疆有关的原材料制成的商品，直到它们被证明不存在奴役或强迫劳动行为。 但美国政府是否愿意或能够拒绝如此多的外国商品还有待观察。

“China is so central to so many supply chains,” said Evan Smith, the chief executive of the supply chain research company Altana AI. “Forced labor goods are making their way into a really broad swath of our global economy.”
供应链研究公司 Altana AI 的首席执行官埃文·史密斯 (Evan Smith) 说：“中国对如此多的供应链至关重要。” “强迫劳动商品正在进入我们全球经济的一个非常广泛的领域。”

标红字体均为楼主更改，与原文作者无关。

赞(23)