Does the principle of non-interference still suit a great power with considerable creative will? The leadership in Beijing must increasingly weigh between the two ideas of its own role – and is now taking the side of the Palestinians in the current Middle East crisis. Our correspondents in Beijing show the difficult balancing act being attempted in the Middle East: courting the Muslim world without alienating Israel. The message behind the maneuver is much more one-sided: Beijing wants to expose the US as a disruptive factor.
The events in Xinjiang are putting China under further pressure – and this may soon have its first effects on the West, as Marcel Grzanna has discovered. The accusations of forced labor against Chinese cotton producers from Xinjiang are contributing to skyrocketing prices for shirts and pants from sustainable production. Organic cotton products could become up to 30 percent more expensive next year. Then consumers will decide at the checkout how much ethical consumption is worth to them.
Foxconn is known to many primarily as a supplier of iPhones. But the Taiwanese company also wants to do business with the automotive industry – and has agreed to a strategic partnership with the Opel parent company Stellantis. With its 14 brands, Stellantis is the fourth largest car manufacturer in the world. But things have not been going well in China. Opel, in particular, which has been one of the smaller Stellantis brands so far, could benefit from the deal with Foxconn.
In the coming months, the retail trade will observe how honest consumers’ loyalty to organic textiles is. The allegations of forced labor against Chinese cotton producers from Xinjiang are partly responsible for the fact that the industry will demand significantly higher cotton prices for shirts and trousers from sustainable production in the foreseeable future. Price increases of up to 30 percent seem realistic for the coming year at the latest. So far, only organic production has been affected, as demand there can no longer be met – also because more and more buyers are avoiding cotton products from the Autonomous Region in northwest China for ethical reasons.
The textile industry is thus watching the trend very closely. “Alternative sources are currently unable to sufficiently compensate for the shortfalls on the world market,” says Elke Hortmeyer from the Bremen Cotton Exchange in an interview with China.Table. “Because of the resulting shortage, purchase prizes for retailers and textile manufacturers have recently increased, in some cases significantly.” The Bremen Cotton Exchange is not a trading place, as the name would suggest, but an association for traders, producers, and processing companies. It also certifies cotton or quality control laboratories.
However, according to Hortmeyer, the strong indications of forced labor in Xinjiang’s cotton fields are considered only one reason among several for the price development. The driving force is unexpected production losses in India, the world’s largest organic producer, with a share of around 50 percent. There, certifiers falsely labeled large quantities of genetically manipulated cotton as organic. After the hoax was exposed, many thousands of tons of organic cotton were suddenly no longer available on the market. This shortfall and the fact that suppliers in the West are abandoning the Chinese fibers are driving up the price of the raw material, while demand for organic products is rising at the same time.
Manufacturers across the board expect the trends to have a significant impact. “We’re talking about price increases for buyers of 20 to 30 percent,” says Michael Spitzbarth, Managing Director of Bleed Clothing, an Upper Franconian manufacturer of ecological textiles. He adds that the Covid pandemic has already accelerated the demand for sustainable materials. Apparently, many consumers have become convinced during the months of the crisis that they can do something good for the world by making sustainable purchases. The major players in the fashion industry are now almost all addressing the issue because customers are demanding more organic products. Whether the growing demand can be met in the short term is doubtful. “Organically cultivated acreage has not increased decisively. We are facing an extreme challenge with our entire industry,” says Spitzbarth in an interview with China.Table.
The company’s founder wants to avoid passing the surcharges on to retailers for as long as possible, so they can keep their prices stable for now. “The industry is shaken enough,” he says. But in the medium term, he, too, sees no alternative to imposing a heavier burden on retailers. Consumers should thus be prepared to have to dig deeper into their pockets from next year. “Then, I estimate, products made from organic cotton will also become more expensive for consumers by an average of 15-20 percent,” Spitzbarth predicts.
Although the organic share of the global cotton production of a good 25 million tons is only about one percent (250,000 tons), demand has risen continuously in recent years. Above all, the trend in the industrial nations towards more sustainability is the driving force for the eco-fiber. On the one hand, this involves environmental aspects, but on the other hand, the target group is also attaching greater importance to an ethically clean quality of the added value. An expert report by the Scientific Service of the German Bundestag on the Supply Chain Act, reported by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, even considers the obligation of German companies to break off business relations with their Chinese suppliers to be “almost inevitable” if they use forced labor.
China produces around 40,000 tonnes per year – just under 20 percent of the world’s organic cotton. However, the People’s Republic does not export any raw material, only yarns and fabrics, as well as finished garments. Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, and Tanzania are other major producers, alongside China and India. But short-term production increases to fill the gaps are impossible. The cultivation of organic agricultural goods requires several years of preparation to ready the soil and thus meet the demands of certifiers and customers.
It thus seems to be only a matter of time before end consumers also have to expect corresponding surcharges when buying green clothing. “As an online retailer, we are at the end of the price spiral. If we have to finance significantly higher costs when purchasing goods, then at a certain point, we have no choice but to pass these costs on to the customers,” says Ulrich Mueller, founder of Veganized, an online portal for sustainable fashion and accessories. “Otherwise, our entire business model makes no sense at all.”
It is true that passing on rising costs to customers is not an inevitable consequence. But as a rule, retailers have few other options. But if customers are serious about ethical consumption, they must be prepared to accept rising prices in return for the banning of forced labor from cotton fields.
The same could soon be true in the solar industry, where suspicions of the use of forced labor by Chinese manufacturers have been circulating for a while. New research from Hallam University in Sheffield, UK, found that almost half of global polysilicon production is affected. According to the report, all solar manufacturers from the Xinjiang region have participated in the Chinese government’s labor transfer program. Beijing insists that the program is in accordance with Chinese law and that worker participation is voluntary. However, Sheffield University has gathered evidence that the Uyghurs’ work was forced. Polysilicon is a basic component of solar panels. Xinjiang is the center of worldwide manufacturing, with 45 percent of production. In total, the supply chains of 90 Chinese and international companies have been affected, it says.
In contrast, there are still no indications of an increase in the price of conventional cotton. Although China also grows around 20 percent of global production here, the fibers made from these fibers end up on the Chinese market anyway, where the handling of cotton from Xinjiang is judged less skeptically than abroad. This is also because Chinese propaganda via state media and social media vehemently denies the accusations and stylizes the use of cotton from Xinjiang as a patriotic issue.
Western companies that publicly voiced concern about forced labor or declared the abandonment of cotton from Xinjiang were caught in a hail of criticism and threats from Chinese media and customers. Some subsequently retracted their critical statements.
German researcher Adrian Zenz uncovered evidence and indications of forced labor through a meticulous review of several Chinese government documents. Zenz believes that up to 800,000 Muslim Uyghurs could be affected by forced labor under the labor transfer program. The transfer program involves putting Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minorities in China into wage labor instead of allowing them to farm. The strategy behind it aims for better control of the Uyghurs in the region by having them live together in labor units. Affected Uyghur workers confirm the accusations with their statements.
For Peter Tichauer, the wide world was his home for a long time. His family lived abroad for many years for work reasons; Tichauer originally planned to study politics with a focus on foreign relations. “But that was a time when the relationship between China and the socialist countries was normalizing,” says the native of East Berlin. “That’s when I was approached with the question: Don’t you want to study sinology?” That’s exactly what he did.
Tichauer then had the chance to go to Peking University while studying sinology in 1984. He returned to Germany for his diploma thesis and initially stayed to work in the field of German-Chinese relations in Berlin. But the thought of returning to China never left him. “I always desired to be able to work there again,” Tichauer recounts. This opportunity was given to him by the OWC Publishing House for Foreign Trade.
Tichauer worked for this publishing house as editor-in-chief of the German-language business magazine “China Contact”. In 2006, the publishing house approached him and suggested that he should rather report on the country locally. “I was then responsible for all reporting on East Asia. In addition to China, we also produced a Japan magazine and an Asia-Pacific special once a year,” he says, explaining economic contexts to a readership in Germany and thus promoting understanding of China.
When his time at OWC Publishing came to an end, Tichauer moved to the port city of Qingdao, where he now works for the German-Chinese Ecopark. “The Ecopark is quite a fascinating idea,” says Tichauer. The project dates back to an agreement between the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China ten years ago. “That was a time when China relied heavily on foreign experience to address environmental issues.” He said he was already familiar with the project from his time as a business journalist, and that’s how he got involved.
In recent years, many such bilateral business parks have been established. Austria and Switzerland also have partnerships with China, but “it is purely Chinese investment. The objective of the local Ecopark is to apply German environmental standards and use German environmental technologies. This allows German companies to tap into this market,” says Tichauer.
However, he said, it is not a purely industrial park but a small mini-city that is built based on German sustainability principles. Tichauer knows how standards have changed in China, from his work as a journalist and now for Ecopark. “I remember how ten or 15 years ago, many from the West were happy that the requirements for environmental protection were not as strict here,” Tichauer says. Back then, companies could do things long out of reach in Europe. “That’s over.”
As recently as March, the Chinese Ministry of the Environment set up a new information platform to collect the emission levels of companies. With this, Beijing wants to hold those accountable who violate the requirements. A total of 2.36 million companies are legally bound to comply with guideline values for wastewater, for example. But until now, the authorities have also had to contend with data falsification by “dirty companies.”
Tichauer reports that the environmental regulations today are sometimes much stricter than in Europe and that the Chinese would not simply accept every product from the West. “But then again, we don’t like that either. China can do what it wants; it’s always wrong,” he says. It is also precisely because of this tension between Europe, or rather Germany and China that Tichauer is staying on top. In the future, he will be important as a German-speaking communications specialist and mediator. Constantin Eckner
Students in Yongzhou take part in stress management activities before their university entrance exams. Relaxed like this, nothing should go wrong at a prestigious university.
Does the principle of non-interference still suit a great power with considerable creative will? The leadership in Beijing must increasingly weigh between the two ideas of its own role – and is now taking the side of the Palestinians in the current Middle East crisis. Our correspondents in Beijing show the difficult balancing act being attempted in the Middle East: courting the Muslim world without alienating Israel. The message behind the maneuver is much more one-sided: Beijing wants to expose the US as a disruptive factor.
The events in Xinjiang are putting China under further pressure – and this may soon have its first effects on the West, as Marcel Grzanna has discovered. The accusations of forced labor against Chinese cotton producers from Xinjiang are contributing to skyrocketing prices for shirts and pants from sustainable production. Organic cotton products could become up to 30 percent more expensive next year. Then consumers will decide at the checkout how much ethical consumption is worth to them.
Foxconn is known to many primarily as a supplier of iPhones. But the Taiwanese company also wants to do business with the automotive industry – and has agreed to a strategic partnership with the Opel parent company Stellantis. With its 14 brands, Stellantis is the fourth largest car manufacturer in the world. But things have not been going well in China. Opel, in particular, which has been one of the smaller Stellantis brands so far, could benefit from the deal with Foxconn.
In the coming months, the retail trade will observe how honest consumers’ loyalty to organic textiles is. The allegations of forced labor against Chinese cotton producers from Xinjiang are partly responsible for the fact that the industry will demand significantly higher cotton prices for shirts and trousers from sustainable production in the foreseeable future. Price increases of up to 30 percent seem realistic for the coming year at the latest. So far, only organic production has been affected, as demand there can no longer be met – also because more and more buyers are avoiding cotton products from the Autonomous Region in northwest China for ethical reasons.
The textile industry is thus watching the trend very closely. “Alternative sources are currently unable to sufficiently compensate for the shortfalls on the world market,” says Elke Hortmeyer from the Bremen Cotton Exchange in an interview with China.Table. “Because of the resulting shortage, purchase prizes for retailers and textile manufacturers have recently increased, in some cases significantly.” The Bremen Cotton Exchange is not a trading place, as the name would suggest, but an association for traders, producers, and processing companies. It also certifies cotton or quality control laboratories.
However, according to Hortmeyer, the strong indications of forced labor in Xinjiang’s cotton fields are considered only one reason among several for the price development. The driving force is unexpected production losses in India, the world’s largest organic producer, with a share of around 50 percent. There, certifiers falsely labeled large quantities of genetically manipulated cotton as organic. After the hoax was exposed, many thousands of tons of organic cotton were suddenly no longer available on the market. This shortfall and the fact that suppliers in the West are abandoning the Chinese fibers are driving up the price of the raw material, while demand for organic products is rising at the same time.
Manufacturers across the board expect the trends to have a significant impact. “We’re talking about price increases for buyers of 20 to 30 percent,” says Michael Spitzbarth, Managing Director of Bleed Clothing, an Upper Franconian manufacturer of ecological textiles. He adds that the Covid pandemic has already accelerated the demand for sustainable materials. Apparently, many consumers have become convinced during the months of the crisis that they can do something good for the world by making sustainable purchases. The major players in the fashion industry are now almost all addressing the issue because customers are demanding more organic products. Whether the growing demand can be met in the short term is doubtful. “Organically cultivated acreage has not increased decisively. We are facing an extreme challenge with our entire industry,” says Spitzbarth in an interview with China.Table.
The company’s founder wants to avoid passing the surcharges on to retailers for as long as possible, so they can keep their prices stable for now. “The industry is shaken enough,” he says. But in the medium term, he, too, sees no alternative to imposing a heavier burden on retailers. Consumers should thus be prepared to have to dig deeper into their pockets from next year. “Then, I estimate, products made from organic cotton will also become more expensive for consumers by an average of 15-20 percent,” Spitzbarth predicts.
Although the organic share of the global cotton production of a good 25 million tons is only about one percent (250,000 tons), demand has risen continuously in recent years. Above all, the trend in the industrial nations towards more sustainability is the driving force for the eco-fiber. On the one hand, this involves environmental aspects, but on the other hand, the target group is also attaching greater importance to an ethically clean quality of the added value. An expert report by the Scientific Service of the German Bundestag on the Supply Chain Act, reported by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, even considers the obligation of German companies to break off business relations with their Chinese suppliers to be “almost inevitable” if they use forced labor.
China produces around 40,000 tonnes per year – just under 20 percent of the world’s organic cotton. However, the People’s Republic does not export any raw material, only yarns and fabrics, as well as finished garments. Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, and Tanzania are other major producers, alongside China and India. But short-term production increases to fill the gaps are impossible. The cultivation of organic agricultural goods requires several years of preparation to ready the soil and thus meet the demands of certifiers and customers.
It thus seems to be only a matter of time before end consumers also have to expect corresponding surcharges when buying green clothing. “As an online retailer, we are at the end of the price spiral. If we have to finance significantly higher costs when purchasing goods, then at a certain point, we have no choice but to pass these costs on to the customers,” says Ulrich Mueller, founder of Veganized, an online portal for sustainable fashion and accessories. “Otherwise, our entire business model makes no sense at all.”
It is true that passing on rising costs to customers is not an inevitable consequence. But as a rule, retailers have few other options. But if customers are serious about ethical consumption, they must be prepared to accept rising prices in return for the banning of forced labor from cotton fields.
The same could soon be true in the solar industry, where suspicions of the use of forced labor by Chinese manufacturers have been circulating for a while. New research from Hallam University in Sheffield, UK, found that almost half of global polysilicon production is affected. According to the report, all solar manufacturers from the Xinjiang region have participated in the Chinese government’s labor transfer program. Beijing insists that the program is in accordance with Chinese law and that worker participation is voluntary. However, Sheffield University has gathered evidence that the Uyghurs’ work was forced. Polysilicon is a basic component of solar panels. Xinjiang is the center of worldwide manufacturing, with 45 percent of production. In total, the supply chains of 90 Chinese and international companies have been affected, it says.
In contrast, there are still no indications of an increase in the price of conventional cotton. Although China also grows around 20 percent of global production here, the fibers made from these fibers end up on the Chinese market anyway, where the handling of cotton from Xinjiang is judged less skeptically than abroad. This is also because Chinese propaganda via state media and social media vehemently denies the accusations and stylizes the use of cotton from Xinjiang as a patriotic issue.
Western companies that publicly voiced concern about forced labor or declared the abandonment of cotton from Xinjiang were caught in a hail of criticism and threats from Chinese media and customers. Some subsequently retracted their critical statements.
German researcher Adrian Zenz uncovered evidence and indications of forced labor through a meticulous review of several Chinese government documents. Zenz believes that up to 800,000 Muslim Uyghurs could be affected by forced labor under the labor transfer program. The transfer program involves putting Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minorities in China into wage labor instead of allowing them to farm. The strategy behind it aims for better control of the Uyghurs in the region by having them live together in labor units. Affected Uyghur workers confirm the accusations with their statements.
For Peter Tichauer, the wide world was his home for a long time. His family lived abroad for many years for work reasons; Tichauer originally planned to study politics with a focus on foreign relations. “But that was a time when the relationship between China and the socialist countries was normalizing,” says the native of East Berlin. “That’s when I was approached with the question: Don’t you want to study sinology?” That’s exactly what he did.
Tichauer then had the chance to go to Peking University while studying sinology in 1984. He returned to Germany for his diploma thesis and initially stayed to work in the field of German-Chinese relations in Berlin. But the thought of returning to China never left him. “I always desired to be able to work there again,” Tichauer recounts. This opportunity was given to him by the OWC Publishing House for Foreign Trade.
Tichauer worked for this publishing house as editor-in-chief of the German-language business magazine “China Contact”. In 2006, the publishing house approached him and suggested that he should rather report on the country locally. “I was then responsible for all reporting on East Asia. In addition to China, we also produced a Japan magazine and an Asia-Pacific special once a year,” he says, explaining economic contexts to a readership in Germany and thus promoting understanding of China.
When his time at OWC Publishing came to an end, Tichauer moved to the port city of Qingdao, where he now works for the German-Chinese Ecopark. “The Ecopark is quite a fascinating idea,” says Tichauer. The project dates back to an agreement between the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China ten years ago. “That was a time when China relied heavily on foreign experience to address environmental issues.” He said he was already familiar with the project from his time as a business journalist, and that’s how he got involved.
In recent years, many such bilateral business parks have been established. Austria and Switzerland also have partnerships with China, but “it is purely Chinese investment. The objective of the local Ecopark is to apply German environmental standards and use German environmental technologies. This allows German companies to tap into this market,” says Tichauer.
However, he said, it is not a purely industrial park but a small mini-city that is built based on German sustainability principles. Tichauer knows how standards have changed in China, from his work as a journalist and now for Ecopark. “I remember how ten or 15 years ago, many from the West were happy that the requirements for environmental protection were not as strict here,” Tichauer says. Back then, companies could do things long out of reach in Europe. “That’s over.”
As recently as March, the Chinese Ministry of the Environment set up a new information platform to collect the emission levels of companies. With this, Beijing wants to hold those accountable who violate the requirements. A total of 2.36 million companies are legally bound to comply with guideline values for wastewater, for example. But until now, the authorities have also had to contend with data falsification by “dirty companies.”
Tichauer reports that the environmental regulations today are sometimes much stricter than in Europe and that the Chinese would not simply accept every product from the West. “But then again, we don’t like that either. China can do what it wants; it’s always wrong,” he says. It is also precisely because of this tension between Europe, or rather Germany and China that Tichauer is staying on top. In the future, he will be important as a German-speaking communications specialist and mediator. Constantin Eckner
Students in Yongzhou take part in stress management activities before their university entrance exams. Relaxed like this, nothing should go wrong at a prestigious university.
