U.S. Customs Seizes Hair Products Believed to be Harvested From Xinjiang Prisoners | Kharon The Kharon Brief

U.S. Customs Seizes Hair Products Believed to be Harvested From Xinjiang Prisoners

Hair products shipped from Xinjiang forced-labor facilities are marketed by U.S. retailers

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) open packages of hair products shipped by a Xinjiang, China-based company cited for indications of the use of forced labor. (Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

By Samuel Rubenfeld and Edmund Xu

July 1, 2020


U.S. authorities on Wednesday announced the seizure of products believed to be made out of human hair harvested from detainees in Xinjiang, China, as Washington warned companies about potential exposure to Xinjiang-related human rights abuses in their supply chains.

The seizure in New York, of about 13 tons of hair weaves and other beauty products worth more than USD 800,000, came from Lop County Meixin Hair Product Co. Ltd., a Xinjiang-based company that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had said in June showed indications of prison and forced labor-use. 

“The production of these goods constitutes a very serious human rights violation, and the detention order is intended to send a clear and direct message to all entities seeking to do business with the United States that illicit and inhumane practices will not be tolerated in U.S. supply chains,” said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner of the CBP Office of Trade.

The seizure comes amid deteriorating relations between the U.S. and China, including over Beijing’s passage of a controversial national security law on Hong Kong, as well as its treatment of minorities in Xinjiang. In recent months, the U.S. has restricted exports to dozens of entities found to be involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, a region in far northwest China that has been the subject of state-backed repression campaigns. 

CBP seized the imported products pursuant to a Withhold Release Order (WRO), a tool it has increasingly used to prevent imports of forced labor-produced items from China, Kharon reported in June

Hair products shipped by Lop County Meixin Hair Product Co., Ltd. were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

The WRO on goods produced by Meixin Hair Product was issued June 17, Kharon previously reported, as part of an investigation into forced labor in the Xinjiang region’s raw materials industries.

Meixin Hair Product had sent goods to the U.S. prior to the CBP detention order, including about 1,000 kilograms of wigs to Los Angeles-based hair products retailer Global Morado Inc. this year, with the most recent shipment arriving in February 2020, according to trade data. That same month, Meixin Hair Product shipped 6,600 kilograms of training heads, or head mannequins, to Florida-based Hitong Group LLC, shipping data shows. 

Both shipments originated from Meixin Hair Product’s address in the Beijing Industrial Park at Xinjiang’s Lop County, trade data show. The industrial park was the site of a widely publicized deradicalization exercise it held for detainees working there, Kharon reported in May.

Another company based at the industrial park, Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories, has shipped more than 600,000 kilograms of wigs to the U.S., including 90,000 kilograms of hair products to Texas-based I&I Hair Corporation and its Los Angeles branch since July 2019, trade data show. Goods made by Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories are also subject to a WRO, which CBP issued on May 1. 

I&I Hair, which makes the Innocence EZBraid hair braids, imports its hair products from Xinjiang-based Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories. (Source: Amazon)

I&I Hair’s Innocence EZ Braid hair products are sold on Amazon and Walmart.com, as well as through the company’s own retail outlets. 

In April 2019, I&I Hair sued a Georgia-based competitor for brand infringement, though the lawsuit was later voluntarily dismissed. The Georgia-based competitor, OS Hair, which does business under the Oh Yes Hair and EZEdges brands and sells its products online through Amazon and other ecommerce sites, also imported hair products from Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories, trade data shows. Since May 2018, OS Hair imported more than 552,000 kilograms of hair, with the most recent shipment arriving in April 2020, just weeks before Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories’s products became subject to the WRO. 

In some cases, hair products with a Xinjiang-origin may not be exported directly from the region. Many Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories products are partially processed in its Xinjiang-based factory, after which they are sent to facilities in Qingdao City in Shandong for further processing before being sent to the U.S. and other countries, Radio Free Asia reported in May. The U.S. imported more than USD 1.5 billion of human and synthetic hair products from China in 2019, or 43 percent of China’s total exports that year, data from China’s customs administration show.

The seizure of Meixin Hair Product’s goods on Wednesday was first reported by the Associated Press, which had tried to visit Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories more than a year ago. Police had ordered the cab taking the AP reporter to the site to turn around, and warned that the taxi’s coordinates were being tracked, the report said. 

“From the road, it was clear that the factory — topped with ‘Haolin Hair Accessories’ in big red letters — was ringed with barbed wire fencing and surveillance cameras, and the entrance was blocked by helmeted police,” the AP reported Wednesday. Across the street was what appeared to be an educational facility, and it was unclear whether the factory was part of a detention center, the AP report said.  

The seizure also came as four U.S. government agencies issued an advisory on the risks and considerations for businesses with supply chain exposure to entities involved in forced labor and other human rights abuses in Xinjiang. “CEOs should read this notice closely and be aware of the reputational, economic and legal risks of supporting such assaults on human dignity,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday at a press conference.

Share this story