Several U.S. lawmakers are urging National Basketball Association (NBA) players to end endorsement deals with Chinese sportswear firms that are linked to forced labor, according to reports.
“Americans can’t and shouldn’t conduct business with companies and players that profit through human slavery,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Penn.) told Politico. “And that includes NBA players—they can’t sign endorsement deals and benefit off slave labor.”
There are currently more than a dozen players in the NBA who have signed contracts with firms that include Anta, Li-Ning, and Peak, which have all admitted to using cotton produced in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.
“If they didn’t know [their corporate sponsor] sourced slave labor cotton from Xinjiang, that’s one thing,” Perry said. “But if they do know … they are complicit with slavery.”
The Republican lawmaker noted in a message to U.S. consumers to not buy their apparel if people are aware that those players are “profiting off slave labor.”
“If their income from these endorsement deals start to dwindle, they’ll get the point,” Perry told the network.
Perry isn’t the only U.S. lawmaker who is questioning NBA players striking deals with firms that have been linked to forced labor. Last month, two democrat members of congress expressed concerns over the contracts in a letter to National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) President Chris Paul and Executive Director Michele Roberts.
“Players have continued to sign new deals with Anta Sports,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) wrote in their letter.
“We believe that commercial relationships with companies that source cotton in Xinjiang create reputational risks for NBA players and the NBA itself,” they said, noting that the U.S. government has determined that China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.