On Jan. 12, the U.S. Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) sent a letter to the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, inquiring about contracts for the acquisition of Olympic uniforms, as the suppliers, Anta and Hengyanxiang (HYX), have publicly acknowledged that they use cotton from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Anta left the Better Cotton Initiative back in March. The CECC is asking the IOC to make public ahead of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing the “certificate of origin” it says it received from HYX in April, which purportedly attests that the Olympic uniforms are made with cotton procured outside of China. The letter also asks the IOC to explain the validity of Anta’s assurances that the products it made for the IOC “were not produced in whole or in part by forced labor.”
On Jan. 18, the CECC also asked the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, to publicly release her office’s assessment of human rights violations in XUAR before the Games start. Bachelet’s office stated in September that it had been warned of such violations by 50 UN experts.
