U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Thursday slammed American companies, including Apple, for turning a blind eye to allegations of forced labor in China, arguing they were making American consumers complicit in Beijing’s repressive policies.
Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on China’s crackdown on Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang region, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said many U.S. companies had not woken up to the fact that they were “profiting” from the Chinese government’s abuses.
“For far too long companies like Nike and Apple and Amazon and Coca-Cola were using forced labor. They were benefiting from forced labor or sourcing from suppliers that were suspected of using forced labor,” Rubio said. “These companies, sadly, were making all of us complicit in these crimes.”
U.S. lawmakers are seeking to pass legislation that would ban imports of goods made in Xinjiang over concerns about forced labor.
Rights groups, researchers, former residents and some western lawmakers say Xinjiang authorities have facilitated forced labor by arbitrarily detaining around a million Uyghurs and other primarily Muslim minorities in a network of camps since 2016.
The United States government and parliaments in countries, including Britain and Canada, have described China’s policies toward Uyghurs as genocide. China denies abuses, saying the camps are for vocational training and to counter religious extremism.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple CEO Tim Cook, July 2020:
Forced labor is abhorrent and we would not tolerate it in Apple and so I would love to get with your office and engage on the legislation… We wouldn’t tolerate it. We would terminate a supplier relationship if it were found.
Rubio is so spot on with this.
Indeed!
Not only Rubio, Republicans have been woke on this topic for years, but Democrats and the media do not listen to them. Arrogant Democrats in office and the media day by day FALSELY pretend to be virtuous and the smartest of ALL. HA! 🤣
“Republican Senator Marco Rubio said many U.S. companies had not woken up to the fact that they were “profiting” from the Chinese government’s abuses.”
Obvious and despicable the not woke Democrats in Washington and around here are TOTAL HYPOCRITES!
Hand in hand with Big Media they could not care less about human rights, only profits.
How else did Biden, Pelosi and Schumer swamp politicians become multimillionaires on a congressional salary?
Long overdue term limits for the Washington swamp, term limit for false SJW Cook and let U.S. companies do the RIGHT thing for once, profits be damned!…
What a coward. Him and Trump tough talking China, and then expecting a computer company do the heavy lifting against a nation with nukes and a billion people.
The CCP lap dogs Cook and LeBron are all about the MONEY. Rubio is righteously speaking out and President Trump did his best in many gestures to Cook. Open your eyes, better yet your closed partisan mind, dumbass.
Cook simply AFRAID to stand up and do what’s right for Apple and human rights. We need a practical creative CEO that pulls Apple 100% out of China A.S.A.P.
Have my doubts coward Cook is up to the task. First he would have to face his epic MISTAKE moving operations to China in the first place putting all his eggs in one basket. About the toughest thing in the world for an arrogant elitist Leftist know it all to admit they were wrong. Ditto for dragging Apple company into woke leftist politics Steve warned against.
No, Timmy is much more comfortable lounging around the mansion with rainbow Apple toys. Not much for innovation compared to many companies, a dutiful caretaker of the obscene profits balance sheet in a communist country at the expense of human rights.
No, we need a smart responsible CEO, not a HYPOCRITE to run an honest company. Not beholden to Communists and human rights abusers on a leash anywhere in the world.
Apple desperately needs a shining example of corporate leadership and responsibility. That person is NOT Tim Cook! 👎🏻
Cue the sycophant fanboy apologists in 3…2…1…
In real and concrete terms–regardless of what you think of him–Trump was the ONLY politician in 5 DECADES do put a pause and speak concerningly about China’s stealing and malfeasance.
So, implying empty-shirt “tough talking China,” exhibits thinking of one that is ignorant, or driven by partisanship, or both.
Nixon, Carter, Regan, Bush1, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama all sold out the American people for the easy exchange of wealth and power with the CCP. Trump was the first United States President to even attempt to stand up to marxist CCP.
Its interesting that the virus was leaked (mistakenly or willful) on an election year just as Trump forced the CCP to sign a fair trade agreement. Its not surprising that the MSM defended the CCP when Trump said evidence looks like covid came from a lab in China that studies and develops bio weapons.
Trump was the first President since before Nixon to send officials to Taiwan.
Trump facts you will NEVER hear from the leftist and Big Media…
So you were saying about “sycophants’ comments…whoosh
Buzz off pesky fly…
Odd, as Rubio and his hard right friends are so against a $15 an hour minimum, pretending ending it will “hurt” the billionaires and large corporations.
Maybe someone will show him the WAPO article: (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/10/worker-shortage-raising-wages/) that shows staying the poverty level wages are now hurting both employers and workers.
Unfortunately the GOP Conservative base will never give in maintaining poverty.
You don’t understand economics.
If you did, you would know the minimum wage is ALWAYS zero.
You might also come to learn that wages have been stagnant since manufacturing jobs left America.
You would then need to learn how the illegal immigration influx ALSO depresses wages.
Much to learn, young Padawan…
The minimum wage is only zero if workers are willing to work for free. If they combine their efforts and refuse to provide labor for less than a living wage, wages will rise. The stagnation in wages is connected with the efforts by businesses and state governments around the US since the 1960s to cripple collective bargaining so that workers cannot force higher wages through market forces. If not for that, there would be no need for government to impose a minimum wage because the market would force the payment of living wages.
Manufacturing jobs could have been replaced by information economy jobs if the displaced workers had been told, honestly, that those old jobs were not coming back, and encouraged to change careers. We could have had policies that provided training for better, higher paying jobs. Failing that, at least the politicians could have kept their fingers out of the pie and promoted free labor markets. Instead, we have had policies that encourage folks to sit around in their double-wides consuming oxycontin and waiting for the fulfillment of political promises that the smokestack industries are coming back. That pool of desperate displaced workers is driving wage levels down more than outsourcing (which has cost far fewer jobs than automation).
Similarly, Immigration only affects wage levels if companies can hire desperate individuals without reference to collective bargaining agreements. It also has no effect if there is effective enforcement of the immigration laws against the businesses, and not just the workers. Hiring undocumented workers will stop when every businessman knows that he cannot hire an immigrant for dirt cheap, treat him terribly, and hold his immigration status over his head as blackmail. Currently, businesses can do that without any realistic fear of prosecution, much less penalties that would make the practice unprofitable.
For most of the history of the United States, immigration has had a positive effect on wage levels for those who are already here because the immigrants take the lower-paying jobs and push the previous waves of immigrants into higher-paying positions. The same is true of free trade. The fatal flaws in protectionism were pointed out by Adam Smith back in the 1770s. Perhaps you should read The Wealth of Nations to understand economics.
You have absolutely no fucking clue.
Just write off anything someone says as drivel without one iota of experience or knowledge. Just repeat some crap you’ve read for years that never was true but moved your agenda forward.
Some of us worked in the real world, not government, education or what has now evolved into ‘tech’.
Even the goddam news article Ken provided pretty much explains minimum wage isn’t needed, they are just too partisan to even know what they wrote.
The collective bargaining (just say Union, OK?) lost its effectiveness when they became more concerned with its political power rather than its members. I’ve been in the IBEW and Teamsters.
Every factory worker I grew up around was told their jobs weren’t coming back. Maybe had you actually knew working class people you would’ve been told this. Odd that you made that remark about oxies instead of crack. Racist much??
And stop your bullshit conflation of immigration and illegal immigrants. No one buys it.
Also, try explaining to the Black community why they have no more construction, highway, maintenance and very few fast food entry level jobs. It’s because of illegals, not immigrants (plus a healthy dose of government aid to deter families).
What an arrogant high-falutin’ turd you are.
Wow, you really are totally clueless to the whole issue in the real world. Leftist talking points and spin do not change facts.
Nuff said…
Minimum wage was never meant to be a “living wage.” It’s nothing but the erosion of excellence and embracing the low bar of mediocrity…which is also spoken as equal outcomes and equity, by a person that one would assume would want the populace to achieve great things. Thanks Kami.
Just think if that 1st job we all had was bumped up to a living wage stature. Many wouldn’t have been stalled by the nonsense, but many would have languished for years in the elementary 1st job and lost time progressing through the vocational ranks to a job that more than satisfied the mind and wallet.
You’re the reason unions exist.
How many minimum wage jobs have you EVER heard of a union representing?
You know why? They can’t ring enough money out of the positions.
Now why do union workers support minimum wage increases?
So their non-union counterparts can enjoy a higher wage?
Hell to the naw, it’s because the union wages are usually based on minimum.
The higher the minimum, the higher THEIR wages go.
Other than that unions couldn’t give 2-shits for open-shop workers…
All unions do is take your money. They do very little for the workers.
TT got you there my friend. Sense an honest and compassionate person in you. But when you switch to politics, the Leftist talking points take over not reflecting reality. Just sayin’ you are smarter than that. Consider temporarily suspending the team colors and analyze critically. You just might THINK DIFFERENTLY…
@Tower Tone @El Gato
Yes unions may be corrupted, some more than others, but like lawyers… they may be barracudas, but they attack the other barracudas, otherwise we have robber barrons hiring goons to break skulls.
Sorry TowerTone, wrong initials. I was referring to AC…
China is only going to become a more serious liability for Apple and Tim as time goes on…which is why smart money is shy of Apple for the near future..
I really don’t like this. But I can’t say it is wrong.
Fact: The American prison system is one of the largest forced labour forces in the world. Maybe he should focus on his own countries atrocities.
Unbelievable.
Except nobody ’forces’ you to commit crimes and be sent to prison. Quit coddling criminals. Prison should be tough. They were 100 years ago. Bring back the rock breakers.
Let’s go ahead an embrace the foremost intellectual of the Democratic Party, who advocates building fewer prisons to solve the growing prison population. This person, btw, is the same person whom states we have 10, or 9, or is it 8 years remaining before the earth says “uncle.” Shall we just go ahead and, today, stop making ICE vehicles? Demand and need will expire…climate = happy.
Brilliance observed from the ex-waitress. (For those easily triggered…I love waitresses).
You don’t have a clue
The Republican Party “created” the China we know today. Nixon started it in 1972. Followed by Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush . . . In 1989, George H.W. Bush “looked the other way” after the events of Tiananmen Square, and in the 2000’s, George W. Bush lead an economy in which thousands of U.S. factories closed, and were re-located to China . . . I find it ironic that today, the Republican Party disavows that they built modern China. Back in the 1980’s, my Uncle lead a team from GE (General Electric) that started expansion into China. One of their concerns were the Unions in the U.S., backed by the Democratic Party, that might impede their movement of factories to China . . . so for those who weren’t alive in the 80s, the Democratic Party was the “worker’s party” and the Republicans were the corporate party . . . so today, when Republicans claim that they have always been anti-China and that they are the “worker’s party,” educated people can’t help but roll their eyes . . . and yes, I am glad that politicians are speaking out about the genocide in China, but my comments are to provide some balance, as politicians try to re-write history, instead of acknowledging: “We all contributed to this situation.”
odd the number of votes you have match TXer in number and time of creation.
what a leftist turd you are.
hit a nerve I see
Guys a joke from a joke state…. without question a coward.
Little Marco…
10/10 would backhand slap the living $hit out of that coward if ever in spitting distance. Much like you and some of these fool commenters on this blog.
Be glad to show you how much of a leftist turd I am……A Southpaw really.
Guaranteed I would drop your ass like a turd if you think you’d spew that diarrhea you’re talking from anywhere other than the protection of your computer.
Hah! Fist off, kudos on most childish post in months.
I bet your dad is bigger than mine and your mommy’s prettier too?
I haven’t mentioned Rubio in any of my post.
Also, FYI, I was a tower worker for over 20 years, so….I’m really not scared of much.
IDGAF what you think you are scared of, do, did, Dad or Moms.
They can come along and I’ll embarrass you in front of them, you spineless cuck!
Spineless, that’s a good one coming from someone with a temporary name.
As far as southpaw, I’ve been taking limp-wristed leftist jabs all my life, never left a mark.
Excellent observation and certainly demands scrutiny and discussion, TT. I have noticed the same manipulative voting since the beginning on MDN.
Two observations. Leftists are consistently voted higher 4-4.5 stars. On the flip side of that coin conservatives, or independents, are consistently voted lower 2-2.5 stars. Both high and low are general averages of my unscientific accounting.
The evidence is right here on this thread, sadly spills over to non-political threads, as well.
BOTTOM LINE: The only posts consistently preaching down votes are somehow remotely honest and indicative of reality are ALL from Leftists. If you are an observant critical thinker, immediately dismiss as pure baloney. My sense is posts of this ilk are revealing their own motives and practices.
While the consistent FRAUD voting marches on, a note to sanctimonious manipulators, I could not care less as one hair off a rats ass… 🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻
When someone gives all such blame to one party and the issue noted remained and was promoted for many decades afterwards, it’s easy to conclude, such thinking has been soaked in ignorance and maintained with irrational partisanship.
Let’s not forget, it was Nixon’s diplomacy was lauded by nearly EVERYONE. Rightfully, or not, people thought he was a genius for moving China from the backwaters of egalitarianism and isolation, to be enjoined with the World.
As it was learned later, the Chinese had a plan well before Nixon’s efforts and EVERyONE….including the D’s that affirmed his efforts, we were bamboozled by their devious intents.
I don’t know if it is TXUser, but the thinking in the post is eerily fits his MO.
Not to mention the thinking at the time Nixon opened trade was for China to hopefully adopt some of America’s system rather than China exporting their system to American universities…
Why would I condemn a bunch of Republican Presidents that I voted for, Frank?
Tx… I respect you, but then in the case of Nixon and Reagan you voted for Presidents that called the Kent State Vietnam war protesters the worst scum we harbor,or similar statements.
Exersizing their right to protest against dying in an unjust war.
As most traditional Republicans discovered in 2016, sometimes we have to hold our noses and vote for the candidate that is less likely to make us vomit. In the case of Nixon and Reagan, their performance after being elected was not quite what they promised in advance. In 2016, the candidate promised exactly what he delivered.
You should read Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, by David Zucchino, which was announced today as the winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
The book details the forgotten history of a coup against an elected multiracial government in North Carolina, tracing efforts by white supremacists to establish white rule in Wilmington while cinematically detailing the bloody assault on Black residents of the town.
People who claim that a successful insurrection against popular rule “can’t happen here” need reminding that it HAS happened here. Only vigilance will keep the January 6 Insurrection from becoming part of a pattern, one that should have been clear to everyone long before November of 2016.
There wasn’t an insurrection on Jan 6, no matter how many times you repeat this bullshit.
Go back, reread your book, look at the actions that took place and then HONESTLY compare them to the protest that spilled over into he Capitol building.
Of course you will continue to insist on rumors and innuendo and then blow them out of proportion to stretch the truth even more, just like the Left does racism, illegal immigration, police ‘brutality’, global warming and any other agenda you need moved forward.
Try dealing with the truth and you might could be taken seriously.
But then, you enjoy the challenge of swaying people with your lies.
What happened in 1898 is that an armed mob captured the elected officials in Wilmington, North Carolina, and forced them to choose between resigning and lynching. They then replaced them with men who had lost the last election and took steps to ensure that they could not lose any future elections.
What happened in January is that an armed mob cornered the elected officials in the US Capitol with the intent to force them to choose between shirking their constitutional duty and lynching. They hoped to reinstall men who had lost the last election and are currently taking steps to ensure that they cannot lose any future elections.
If you compare the events, the major difference is that the Wilmington mob was more successful. So far.
The 2016 candidate was an Orwellian abomination.
Added to my reading list. Thanks
“They hoped to reinstall men who had lost the last election and are currently taking steps to ensure that they cannot lose any future elections.”
LIE!
Tower Tone is correct you can lie and misrepresent what happened on Jan. 6 and your efforts do not change facts one particle. Insurrection is the most irresponsible term and BIG LIE coming from the Democrat Party and media COLLUSION sycophants right up there with Biden’s Jim Crow 2.0.
A couple hundred protestors out of 750,000, 400 arrests total, at the rally comprised of right and left extremists from BLM and ANTIFA broke a few windows, wow, big friggin deal. Voting continued that evening.
Compare three hours of Capitol protest to over six months of mob rioting and looting in a dozen cities burning buildings, assaulting citizens and sending police officers to the emergency room causing BILLIONS of dollars in damages.
You have not posted once your position on the woke Leftist Mobs destroying inner cities. Why is that? Do you support the destructive Leftist mobs?
Install a new government?? Over the U.S. Military?? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
TxLIAR, we can count on you for consistently spewing Leftist poison to divide the citizens of the USA, and do NOTHING to bring us TOGETHER…
Not a lie. Their intent, as expressed by their Fearless Leader, was to march down to the Capitol and intimidate the United States Congress into overturning the results of the 2020 Presidential Election. You may choose not to call that an attempted insurrection, but that does not mean that it was not one.
I’m not even sure that the attempt to subvert our constitution was unsuccessful. After they were threatened with lynching, 7 Senators and 138 House members voted to ignore the certified election results from two states with no credible evidence of election fraud. In the aftermath, multiple state legislatures have taken steps that are targeted at reducing election turnout and making it easier for a minority to challenge and overturn an election result. Again, for comparison see what happened in the South after the end of Reconstruction.
It is ridiculous to claim that there was any substantial participation in the insurrection by anyone other than Trump supporters. Nobody has yet named or arrested many more than one alleged Antifa/BLM participant. You are just telling another big lie like the Big Lie that there is credible evidence of widespread election fraud. Ok, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt…. you may not be lying but are actually credulous enough to actually believe the Lost Cause b.s. like generations of Southerners and Germans believed in their respective Lost Causes.
It was not just “a few windows broken.” There was substantial property damage, scores were injured, and multiple people died of direct injuries or event-related stress. I know you don’t really care about dead Americans, as your attitude about the pandemic shows, but they are still dead. They have families who cared that they died, even if you don’t. You claim to “back the blue,” but find excuses for people who attacked peace officers on Capitol Hill.
I have consistently condemned the violence committed around the BLM protests. If you haven’t read my comments to that effect, it is only because you weren’t paying attention. “Consistently” means that I condemned the violence from both sides. I haven’t seen you doing that.
Instead, I have seen you wrapping yourself in the American flag while attacking the principle of government by the people, of the people, and for the people that is the whole foundation of the American experiment in constitutional government. I see you repeating lies about an effort–which is still ongoing–to overturn the lawfully cast ballots of 81 million eligible American voters. I see a disgusting lack of patriotism by a gang of thugs who have hijacked the Grand Old Party and turned it into a force for the reimposition of a caste-based society ruled by a minority on the backs of the majority.
You and your comrades tear at the very fabric of American society and you accuse me of being divisive. If that was meant as a joke, it isn’t very funny.
I don’t respect LIARS that make false claims daily. Sorry to read you “respect” LIARS…
Walmart did more to gut American manufacturing — in favor of cheap labor from China — than anyone in either political party. Capitalism happily destroyed the American middle class, and the payoff has been CEO salaries and Wall Street bonuses.
No, not really…w/o those buying perceived value Walmart offered, the business would have died long ago. Walmart didn’t force buyers. Buyers were enticed.
When was the last time you bought something more expensive, “just because?”
We are defined by “consumerism,” which I’d deem a negative. It is every American that’s responsible for the China-connection…as we cannot do without our cheap goods and we demand to have them quickly (Amazon and China = our ideal).
Interestingly and directly pointing to the ignorant partisanship in your post…why no mention of Clinton? Besides being complicit in the financial expansion of China and creating out insatiable consumer appetite, Bill had this thing of giving away technology to China…in areas and ways that compromised our national security.
R & D’s have been both broadly and deeply involved in the China quandary. Btw, if it was just R’s driving the bus you mention, one can only conclude the D’s are quite impotent and or, naive.
Little Marco, tells about the 80K fishing boat you bought in you Gov. credit card.
Nothing but a RINO…
Yet these same companies have condemned the United Sates for its slavery history.