Forced labour in China presents dilemmas for fashion brands

THE WORLD has few more Orwellian conglomerates than the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a nearly 3m-strong paramilitary-style business in western China. It was set up in 1954 to spur an influx of demobbed soldiers from the Han majority into an area dominated by Muslim Uighurs. It retains a militia of 100,000, charged with rooting out extremism. The militiamen and others help the XPCC furnish the world with a panoply of goods. About 400,000 XPCC farmers harvest a third of China’s cotton. Others are part of Xinjiang’s tomato-exporting business. From pyjamas to passata, XPCC products penetrate global supply chains.