Bank Investment Linked To Forced Chinese Labor

On August 17, 2005, the South China Morning Post, Hong-Kong's English-language newspaper, printed an article alleging that mainland China wig manufacturer Henan Rebecca Hair Products employs the forced labor of prisoners in Xuchang. The company's half-year financial statement reveals that Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS are amongst its top ten investors.

SocialFunds reports that the banks access the Chinese market through the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) mechanism and are likely functioning not as direct investors but as intermediaries buying shares for clients, according to article writer Jamil Anderlini.