A Chinese labor activist group has been approved by Western Union to again send money to its investigators in China after the bank refused earlier this month to complete the wire transfers until the group provided confidential information about its funding sources and investigative contracts, the group’s executive director said Monday.
Western Union officials froze an attempted transfer of $5,000 to an investigator for China Labor Watch (CLW)—a nonprofit organization that investigates abusive labor practices in Chinese factories that produce goods for large corporations—on Aug. 14 and said they would not release the funds or allow any future transfers until the group disclosed private information about its donors and investigators.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that pressure from the Chinese government often induces human rights groups in China to adopt practices that blunt their activism, like registering as businesses or opting not to solicit foreign funds. CLW officials raised concerns that the inability to wire money would prompt the group to use another method such as bank accounts, which would be directly traceable to investigators and open to surveillance.
Li Qiang, the group’s executive director, said in an email that Western Union officials told him that the original denial of the wire transfer was an "internal" matter.
"Based on what they said, the decision to not allow CLW to send money was an internal process in which Western Union periodically verifies customer information in order to prevent things like fraud," he said.
Qiang said a Western Union representative also assured him that the rejection was "purely internal" and not related to pressure from the Chinese government.
Western Union normally requires individuals wiring money to provide the recipient’s first and last name, country, and city. The recipient then presents an ID to complete the transfer.