Brands have long relied on social auditing companies to monitor their supply chains in China. But between the industry’s own flaws and a changing political environment in China, many say social audits aren't reliable.
In 2012, just as Apple was preparing to release the iPhone 5, the company found itself in a bind. A damning series of reportsIn addition to The New York Times, other media outlets and labor rights groups also published reports on labor conditions at factories in China that contracted to manufacture for Apple. was released that detailed troubling working conditions at the factories of a key supplier, Foxconn, in Chengdu and Shenzhen, China. Apple’s supplier, the reports had found, had excessive overtime, crowded worker dorms, falsified records and even several worker suicides.
The California company vowed to do better. CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple would open its supply chain for independent evaluations to identify labor violations, and he promised not to “stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain.”In early 2012, Apple also joined the Fair Labor Association, an industry group that monitors supplier factories to ensure good working conditions.
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Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.
