Despite the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committing egregious human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region, companies like Procter & Gamble (P&G) have chosen to turn a blind eye to the atrocities and their own policies to sponsor the CCP’s Beijing Olympics this month.
In a human rights policy statement issued in March 2021, P&G claimed “respect for Human Rights” was “fundamental” to the way the company is managed. P&G also wrote that it is “committed to doing the right thing by respecting human rights in every aspect” of their business operations, including as it relates to employees, consumers, the communities in which they do business and business partners.
The company wrote that it has earned a “reputation of trust and integrity” which sets it apart and that customers of the massive corporation “know that we do what we say, and say what we mean.”
In the Chinese Communist Party’s Olympic Village, just a half-day train ride from where party leaders are facilitating genocide, P&G has opened a beauty salon.
For years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been systematically suppressing minorities in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Witness reports have revealed killings, torture, rape, enslavement, forced separation of children from their parents, forced sterilization and abortion, enforced disappearances, and destruction of cultural and religious heritage.
China expert Adrian Zenz characterized China’s suppression of Muslim Uyghurs – which has reportedly impacted over 1.5 million people – as “probably the largest incarceration of an ethnoreligious minority since the Holocaust.”
American Military News asked P&G how the company is upholding its human rights policy as a sponsor of the Beijing Olympics given the CCP’s genocide of Muslim minorities, but the company did not return a request for comment.
In July 2021, top U.S. lawmakers voiced similar concerns regarding P&G’s sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics. Executives from P&G were called to appear in front of Congress’ Commission on China, where the company, among others, was accused of valuing profits over human rights.
During the hearing covering “Corporate Sponsorship of the 2022 Beijing Olympics,” a representative for P&G reiterated the company’s “commitment to respecting and prioritizing human rights.”
Sean Mulvaney, Senior Director of Government Relations and Public Policy, justified P&G’s sponsorship of the Olympics in China by highlighting efforts the company has made to protect human rights, including a 24/7 help line so anyone can confidentially report human rights concerns.
Mulvaney added that the company encourages employees, business partners, non-governmental organizations, or other stakeholders to report “potential human rights concerns related to the business” so it can investigate.
