Made in China Quotes

“During our endless search for the newest trends for the lowest prices, we become complicit in the forced-labor industry. Chinese manufacturers often believe they have no choice but to secretly outsource to gulags, because they cannot meet the global consumer demand for budget prices and the latest trends. Studies have shown it is precisely brands’ demands for lower prices, faster production, and fulfillment of unanticipated orders that compel factories to illegally subcontract work to places like labor camps.”
― Amelia Pang, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods

“According to one study, about 60 percent of all clothing manufactured around the world is discarded within a few years of production. That is equivalent to one garbage truck full of clothes arriving at a landfill every second.”
― Amelia Pang, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods

“It’s starkly clear, looking at all these cases, that the US government is demanding an impossible burden of proof to ban products from China. Surely, the policy makers who worked on these laws are aware of the loopholes. Why are they so reluctant to close them? Some argue it is because corporate America would not want them to. In 1989, after the massacre of student protestors at Tiananmen Square, the United States said China’s most favored nation (MFN) trading status would be contingent on improvement in human rights.”
― Amelia Pang, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods

“In the contentious political atmosphere of the times, this was one of the few pieces of legislation that received bipartisan support, and the Senate passed the bill with a 75–20 vote on February 11, 2016. President Barack Obama signed it into law thirteen days later. For the first time in eighty-six years, consumer demand could no longer be used as an excuse to allow products made by forced laborers to be sold in the United States.”
― Amelia Pang, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods

“In other words, the reasons Chinese suppliers subcontract to forced laborers lead straight to global consumers: to us and the way we buy. In our ceaseless search for the cheapest and the most current design, technology, flavor, or appliance, we reward the companies that offer the lowest prices and sell the latest trends. The most profitable retailers in every industry are the ones that meet these demands.”
― Amelia Pang, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods

“From the beginning, audits were created to protect corporations rather than workers. Our modern auditing practices date to the 1990s, when labor activists, journalists, and NGOs uncovered Nike’s reliance on child workers and sweatshops. Nike initially denied responsibility. Its reasoning was this: since the company did not own its factories, the well-being of overseas factory workers did not fall under its purview.”
― Amelia Pang, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods

“Studies have shown it is precisely brands’ demands for lower prices, faster production, and fulfillment of unanticipated orders that compel factories to illegally subcontract work to places like labor camps.”
― Amelia Pang, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods

“At the time, the Masanjia case was one of twelve pending investigations involving Chinese forced-labor facilities that were likely exporting to the United States. To date, China has not allowed US officials to visit any of these sites.”
― Amelia Pang, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods