Demand is growing for an immediate investigation into Western Australia’s (WA) $1.3 billion railcar contract, which was awarded to a firm sourcing parts from a Chinese company that has linkages to Uyghur slave labour. The contract to build 246 rail cars between the Australian government and Alstom—a French rail transport company—was signed in 2019, with all 246 rail cars to be built in the state and was the largest contract awarded in Perth. However, half of the components for the rail cars will be supplied by the KTK Group, a Chinese firm which the U.S. government has named as one of eleven companies allegedly involved in human rights violations in “China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labour and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.” Additionally, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) think tank last year, titled “Uyghurs for Sale,” …
RSS Feed | The Epoch Times