(HorizonPost.com) – In 2019, officials in China arrested and allegedly tortured whistleblower Tang Mingfang multiple times after he gave evidence to a labor rights group in New York regarding the mistreatment of student workers at the Foxconn factory in Hengyang. On February 16, a team of bipartisan legislators with the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) wrote a letter to Amazon, asking the company to support Tang because the factory in question produces products for the e-commerce giant.
The letter, signed by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), asked Amazon to advocate for the “complete exoneration” of Tang.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to @Amazon CEO @AJassy, asking the US e-commerce giant to support a Chinese whistleblower who was jailed and tortured after he exposed poor working conditions at one of the company’s suppliers in #China. https://t.co/yPCgfNtqS8
— The Epoch Times – China Insider (@EpochTimesChina) February 18, 2022
This isn’t the first time US lawmakers have called on Amazon to step in. In July 2021, they reportedly asked the company to call for the whistleblower’s release, but it never replied. The legislators wrote that businesses need people like Tang who are brave enough to report bad practices when they see them, and parent companies should protect them from persecution.
Tang was held in prison until September 2021, after which he came forward and alleged that he was forced to make false confessions. Without backing from Amazon, the ex-employee was allegedly subject to multiple arrests, lengthy jail times, beatings and torture until he reluctantly confessed to “infringing on business secrets.”
Amazon refused to say whether or not it would help Tang.
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