Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 7 June 2017
China defends arrest of men probing Ivanka Trump supplier

holding Chinese manufac- interrogation on Saturday. — it’s impossible not to be
turers accountable under She said police questioned nervous,” she said. “I was
Chinese labor laws. her sharply about her con- terrified.”
Deng Guilian, the wife of tacts with foreign media. Asked about the deten-
one of the detainees, Hua She said that on Friday four tions Tuesday, White House
Haifeng, told The Associ- policemen sat in a close spokesman Sean Spicer
ated Press that she had circle around her, one ask- said the State Department
been interrogated twice ing questions, one examin- has made the U.S. position
by police in her hometown ing her phone, one taking “very clear” and will “con-
in central China’s Hubei notes and one just staring tinue to exert the proper
province. The police pulled at her. “In a normal situa- diplomatic pressure.” On
her in for four hours of ques- tion, as a woman at mid- whether the president or
tioning that lasted past night squeezed in the mid- Ivanka Trump would com-
midnight on Friday, and dle of four men — more- ment directly, he said “it’s
then called her for a further over they’re policemen a State Department issue.”
A man rides a motorbike out-
side of a Huajian Group shoe
factory in Ganzhou in south-
eastern China’s Jiangxi Prov-
ince, Tuesday, June 6, 2017.
The Chinese government re-
jected calls to release three
activists detained while inves-
tigating a Chinese company
that produced shoes for Ivan-
ka Trump and other brands
and sought to enforce a cone
of silence around the men,
according to a family mem-
ber and lawyer who were
interrogated and told not to
speak to the foreign press.
(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

By ERIKA KINETZ
Associated Press
GANZHOU, China (AP) —
China’s government on
Tuesday rejected a U.S.
State Department call to
release three activists de-
tained while investigating
a factory that produced
shoes for Ivanka Trump
and other brands. It sought
instead to enforce a cone
of silence around the men,
according to a lawyer and
the wife of one detainee
who was interrogated for
hours herself.
The U.S. State Department
on Monday called on Chi-
na to release the men, who
were detained last week
after working undercover
in a Chinese factory to
check into worker abuses.
“We urge China to re-
lease them immediately
and otherwise afford them
the judicial and fair trial
protections to which they
are entitled,” said Alicia
Edwards, a State Depart-
ment spokeswoman. She
said the U.S. remains con-
cerned about “the pattern
of arrests and detentions”
and noted that labor ac-
tivists are instrumental in
helping American compa-
nies understand conditions
in their supply chains and