China Releases Activists Scrutinizing Ivanka Trump Shoe Factory

China Releases Activists Scrutinizing Ivanka Trump Shoe Factory
By KEITH BRADSHERJUNE 28, 2017
DALIAN, China — Three undercover investigators who were seeking evidence of abusive labor practices in the manufacture of Ivanka Trump-branded shoes have been
released on bail from a detention center in southeastern China pending a trial, the activist group that employed the investigators said on Wednesday.
Two of the men — Li Zhao and Hua Haifeng — worked undercover in the giant Dongguan factory of Huajian International, a Chinese company
that claims to make shoes worn by one in every 10 women in the United States.
China Labor Watch contends that Huajian requires its workers to labor up to 18 hours in a day, violating China’s regulatory limits on overtime, and
that they were paid less than they had been promised when they agreed to work for the company.
Zhang Huarong, the company’s founder and chairman, strongly denied in a lengthy interview at the Dongguan factory in December
that Huajian had violated labor laws, and company spokesmen have reiterated that position since then.
Mr. Li and Mr. Hua were also detained in Ganzhou because they had fled there to join
Mr. Su after they became worried that the police were monitoring them in Dongguan.
China Labor Watch, the group that sent the men into two factories that produce Ivanka Trump shoes, called for them to receive a fair trial.
China Labor Watch contends that further batches were scheduled to be manufactured for the brand at the end of May and in June, and
that its investigators had been planning to document the production of those shoes but were detained by the authorities days beforehand.