Some Labubu dolls contain banned cotton from Chinese region known for forced labor: investigation

A new investigation found some Labubu dolls contain cotton that is banned in the US because it comes from a region in China known for its forced-labor laws.The plush monster toys have enjoyed a Cabbage Patch Doll-like craze around the globe, seen hanging off the luxury bags of celebs like Rihanna and Kim Kardashian.But an investigation commissioned last year by the Campaign for Uyghurs, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit, found that samples from Labubu dolls contained cotton grown in Xinjiang – despite a ban on imports from that region.US lawmakers, journalists and human rights organizations have accused the Chinese government of forced labor, forced sterilization, surveillance, torture and the persecution of the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim minority group, in Xinjiang.The New York Times confirmed the results of the nonprofit’s investigation, with independent experts who found that 16 of 20 Labubus purchased by the news outlet contained cotton from the region, mainly in the dolls’ t-shirts. Such imports would violate the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which Congress passed in 2021 to ban any products made in Xinjiang.That could lead to punitive actions including bans on imports of the dolls.Secretary of State Marco Rubio, spearheaded the bill when he was a senator, saying at the time that there was a “genocide against the Uyghur people” and other Muslim groups “at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”The dolls containing the illicit cotton were bought from Amazon, eBay, Shein, AliExpress and directly from Pop Mart, the Chinese retailer behind the dolls, according to the Times.

The dolls were from the Labubu lines “Fall in the Wild” and “Flip With Me.”“The Trump administration continues to monitor for any violations of US law by importers, and has initiated a robust Section 301 investigation into the importation of forced-labor goods by our trading partners,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Post.He did not comment specifical...