You raise a really good point @anon67096361 , and it is great that you are not only aware of these issues, but also challenging companies regarding their approach. We need more consumers to do this in order to drive transparency and action in the marketplace.
There is no doubt that there are some serious infringements against human rights occuring in China. Sadly this is not only true for China. Most if not all countries in the world have varying levels of exploitation, slavery, discrimination, and all nature of human rights abuse occuring in their societies. The drivers behind these abuses also vary greatly, so there is no one size fits all approach when trying to tackle them.
Over the last few years we have been working really hard at Huel to make sure we only work with suppliers that share our values, both in the protection of people and the environment. Our first step is to undertake sustainability risk assessments for all potential sourcing countries - this determines the level of investigation that we will take when screening our suppliers. Our investigation has multiple components - including a requirement for an independently verified ethical certification such as SA 8000, BSCI Amfori or SMETA, external database review of supplier financial security and legislative compliance, and supplier visits.
The audits we carry out require a review of the nationality and ethnicity of all workers, assessment of working conditions, and confidential employee interviews.
There are some countries that we will simply not source from as it is not possible to make a proper assessment of the risks, or because the national legislation is insufficient to protect human rights to the level we believe is necessary. However, we do not do this lightly, as we believe it is important to reward good behaviour (with our business) rather than to punish everyone indiscriminately.
At this point in time we are confident that our suppliers based in China meet our requirements. This confidence does not just come from an audit result (after all that is only a snapshot of a few days a year), but is the culmination of many different ongoing sources of information. If at any point we feel that the situation has changed, then we will take immediate action to assess the situation, identify corrective actions, or if necessary to terminate our contract.
A blanket ban can seem like an effective action, we get that. But it is a blunt tool - and it would be simple to rule out every country in the world. It is only by working hard to understand what is happening in your supply chain, encouraging and supporting high levels of performance, and doing so continuously that we can hope to meet our goal of ethical and environmentally responsible sourcing. It is a goal that we are committed to, we are resourcing (both in-house and externally), and for which we very much appreciate your support.