US bans import of all China's Li-Ning products, citing use of North Korean labor
A screenshot from Li-Ning's website
The U.S. customs agency has banned all goods made by the Chinese sportswear giant Li-Ning, accusing the company of using North Korean labor in its supply chain, a violation of U.S. sanctions.
This is the latest move by Washington to crack down on China's apparel sector over suspected human rights abuses, this time under the authority of a five-year-old sanctions law targeting Pyongyang.
"[The law] is yet another tool in CBP's trade enforcement arsenal that allows us to uphold the fundamental value of human dignity and to ensure the goods that enter the United States are free from forced labor," said AnnMarie Highsmith, executive assistant commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Trade.
That law, called the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, bans any goods "mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part by North Korean nationals or North Korean citizens anywhere in the world" from entering the U.S.
iPR Ogilvy & Mather, a public relations firm that represents Li-Ning, did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. customs agency did not respond to questions about where in Li-Ning's supply chain the North Korean labor was allegedly being used, or where in North Korea.
United Nations reports on human rights conditions in North Korea have said the country uses forced labor throughout its notoriously brutal prison system.
The customs agency said Li-Ning's goods would not be allowed into the U.S. "unless the importer provides clear and convincing evidence" that there was no forced labor involved. The ban went into effect Monday, one day before it was publicly announced.
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The U.S. has cracked down hard on the Chinese apparel sector in recent years, but most of that has been related to suspected human rights abuses in China's far-west Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused of committing crimes against humanity, including mass detentions and forced labor of the region's Uygurs and other ethnic minority groups.
Washington has also accused Beijing of committing genocide in the region. The Chinese government denies any rights abuses, and says it is helping provide job skills to the region's ethnic minority population.
A law that essentially bans all Xinjiang goods from entering the U.S. passed earlier this year.
Li-Ning has also been entangled in the controversies surrounding Xinjiang. Amid a public backlash against other companies that had spoken out about suspected rights abuses in the region, Li-Ning has said it uses Xinjiang cotton.
Li-Ning is one of China's most famous home-grown apparel brands ― it is named after the Olympic gymnast who founded the company ― but has a vastly smaller presence in the U.S.
The company has made some inroads with sponsorships in the NBA. The retired basketball star Dwyane Wade's "Way of Wade" clothing line, for example, is produced in partnership with Li-Ning.