Jewish World Watch applauds Airbnb and the leadership of CEO Brian Chesky for taking the initial steps toward a more ethical business model by committing to removing all Chinese homes and experiences from its platform by mid-summer.
Together with a coalition of worker’s unions, faith-based organizations and human rights groups, Jewish World Watch (JWW), an anti-genocide and mass atrocities nonprofit founded in 2004 as a response to the genocide in Darfur, implored Airbnb to reverse course on its decision to do business in China.
In addition to its sponsorship of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, Airbnb reportedly conducted business in Xinjiang – the epicenter of the People’s Republic of China’s ongoing genocide against the Uyghur people – including on “land owned by an organization sanctioned by the US government for complicity in genocide and forced labor.” According to guidance issued to companies by the United States government, there is no context in which a business could operate in this region of China without exposure to and possible complicity in the Chinese government’s genocide against the Uyghur peoples.
Today’s decision by Airbnb is the first step toward ending its complicity in the ongoing human rights crisis and highlights that the costs and risks of operating in the Chinese market far outweigh the benefits. Hopefully, Airbnb will serve as an example that other corporations should expeditiously follow, especially given the impending enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).
The UFLPA will require importers to prove that their goods intended for sale within the United States are free of forced labor, rather than relying on the government to do so. This new standard will protect Americans from unwittingly bringing tainted goods into their homes.
“The horror stories we’re hearing about Uyghur people taken in the night, being separated from their families, having their heads shaved, put on trains, interned, forced into slave labor and systematically murdered are all too familiar to the Jewish community,” said Jewish World Watch Executive Director, Serena Oberstein. “Jewish World Watch and our Uyghur partners will continue to apply pressure on corporate stakeholders and elected leaders to help ensure that products entering the United States are forced labor free.”
Time will tell if this was a decision guided by the moral compass of their staff and leadership and not by poor revenue generation. History will remember both those who did the right thing and those who were indifferent while one of the worst human rights atrocities on record proliferated.