"On Xinjiang, Japan's brands hold their breath ahead of Biden-Suga", 9 April 2021

At an earnings briefing on Thursday, Tadashi Yanai, president of Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing, insisted the Japanese apparel company was neutral when it came to politics.

"Of course if we find any human rights problems in any of our factories or cotton production, we immediately stop doing business" with such a supplier, Yanai said when asked by reporters on China's treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority population in Xinjiang.

But he added: "We are politically neutral. If I say any more, it will become political, so I will stick to 'no comment'."

[...] Fast Retailing was among nearly four dozen companies urged last month by institutional investors to reveal more information about their supply chains.

[...] Greater China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, accounts for more than 20% of Fast Retailing's revenue. [...]