Linking labour issues in China to global brands

This visual guide is a tool for civil society organisations and journalists that want to investigate links between reports of labour abuses in Chinese factories and supply chain due diligence of international brands and retailers. Its main purpose is to support work to hold multinational corporations accountable for unfair business practices in their supply chains.

Chinese workers increasingly use social media and other online channels to express grievances and document their experiences. China Labour Bulletin(opens in new window) (CLB) captures such social media information and publishes it on its Strike map(opens in new window) . However, finding out which brands buy from factories where workers report abuses is challenging for civil society organisations and journalists due to the limited transparency of global supply chains, language constraints, and China’s closed political context.


To help fill this gap, SOMO and CLB developed a research methodology to connect data on workers’ grievances, captured by CLB, with the international brands and multinational companies sourcing from the factories where labour issues are reported. This tool – also available as a PDF file – provides visual, step-by-step guidance on how to establish names of factories in China, gather crucial details about their operations, and ultimately uncover trade links to major global clothing and electronics brands.
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Before you start, check out the Research Resources section, which provides links to the various sites referred to in the visual guide. If you need help with your investigation, lack the language skills needed to navigate some of the key sources, or do not have access to a database you need to verify the information you found, please contact The Counter, SOMO’s pro bono global helpdesk for activists challenging corporate power. Depending on the nature of your request, we may be able to help you.

_{* The examples used in this visual guide are partly fictional and only for illustration. The text on the images was made with a Chinese Mandarin Lorem Ipsum generator.
** SOMO and CLB do not contact workers about their posts, and do not use their names in any outputs. This respects their privacy and safety. Online posts give workers a forum to represent their situation directly. Users of this information should always act ethically, respectfully and responsibly.}

Stage 1 – Establishing names of Chinese companies

China Labour Bulletin’s Strike map(opens in new window) is the most common starting point for our research. It is currently the most comprehensive and systematic public record of reports of strikes and worker protests drawn from Chinese social media, including images.



Images on social media can help us identify the locations of factories where workers’ rights have been violated, as well as the Chinese and English factory names needed for the next stages of our research.

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After these research steps, we should have a couple of possible English and Chinese company names and locations. In stage 2, we use other methods to confirm the factory’s name and gather other important details.

Stage 2 – Gather company data

In the second stage of our research, we want to gather as many relevant details as we can about the company that owns the factory. This will provide us with more context to understand the issues underlying worker grievances, information to confirm facts, and clues for additional investigation.

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By the end of stage 2 of our research, we should have a more complete picture of the Chinese company we are investigating. Having a clearer sense of what the factory produces, the size of its operations, its ownership structure, and where it fits into a larger corporate hierarchy will be helpful when investigating supply chain links.


Stage 3 – Investigate trading links

In the third and final stage of our research, we focus on collecting evidence of direct, indirect, and potential supplier-customer relationships between the Chinese factory and international brands. We can investigate these trade links using the company’s website and several databases.

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Conclusion

Supply chain research is often not a linear process. We may need to go back and forth between the three stages we defined in our methodology. We may also need to repeat some of the investigation steps on “customers” of a supplier that are not at the end of the global supply chain. For example, a textile company may ship to a garment factory in Vietnam, which has its own customers that are more likely to be brands.

This methodology is part of a larger project to improve corporate accountability under the emerging human rights due diligence framework. In 2024 and 2025, we will regularly publish findings from our research on China-linked supply chains.