Ivanka shoes | Lawyer says three men who probed shoemaker detained

A lawyer for one of three activists detained while investigating a Chinese company that produced shoes for Ivanka Trump and other brands in China said yesterday that all three men were being held at the Ganzhou City Detention Center in southeastern China, where conditions were crowded but tolerable.

The activists were working with China Labor Watch, a New York-based nonprofit organization, and were investigating Huajian Group factories in the southeastern Chinese cities of Ganzhou and Dongguan.

The U.S. State Department called for their immediate release.

The company has denied allegations of excessive overtime and low wages. It says it stopped producing Ivanka Trump shoes months ago.

The lawyer, Wen Yu, said that after a day and a half of waiting he was finally able to meet his client, Hua Haifeng.

“His condition inside is OK. Nobody beat him,” Yu said. “It’s just that he has to sleep next to the toilet. People go to pee all night.” He said the cell was crowded with 21 people who have been ordered not to speak with Hua.

Yu said he had applied for bail for Hua. He added that authorities had told him there was an accident in the cell on Monday which had prevented him from seeing his client, though Hua later told him no such accident had happened. AP