Labor Activists Probing Ivanka Trump Brand in China Arrested, Missing

According to China Labor Watch, labor activist Hua Haifeng was arrested in Jiangxi province on suspicion of illegally using eavesdropping equipment.
 
The men were working with the New York-based advocacy group to publish a report next month alleging low pay, excessive overtime and possible misuse of student labor, according to China Labor Watch executive director Li Qiang, who lost contact with the investigators over the weekend. China Labor Watch has been exposing poor working conditions at suppliers to some of the world’s best-known companies for nearly two decades, but Li said his work has never before attracted this level of scrutiny from China’s state security apparatus, Associated Press reported.
 
Ivanka Trump’s lifestyle brand imports most of its merchandise from China, trade data show. She and her father both have extensive trademark portfolios in China, though neither has managed to build up a large retail or real estate presence here. The sister of Jared Kushner, a Trump adviser and husband of Ivanka, travelled to China this past month to court investment from Chinese families for a real estate project in New Jersey.
 
Li said in 17 years of activism, including investigations of hundreds of factories in China, his group had never had anyone arrested on suspicion of having committed a crime.
 
"This is the first time we've come across this kind of situation," he said Reuters, adding the accusation against Hua had "no factual basis".
 
Li said Hua and another investigator, Li Zhao, had worked covertly at a shoe factory in the city of Dongguan, in Guangdong province, that was owned by the Huajian Group.
 
A third, Su Heng, had worked at a related factory in the city of Ganzhou in Jiangxi but went incommunicado after May 27. Both factories produced Ivanka Trump-branded shoes, Li Qiang said.
 
Hua had been investigating a vocational school in Jiangxi affiliated with the parent company of the factories when he was arrested.
 
The investigators had discovered evidence that workers' rights had been violated, Li said.