What’s inside the blind box? Trendy toys on US shelves evade Uyghur labor law.

The cute, collectible Labubu dolls flying off shelves come in “blind boxes” — buyers don’t know which figure they’ve purchased until they open it. But the ugly truth about these popular toys remains hidden: the cotton inside is tied to state-imposed forced labor in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The New York Times reports that independent testing of Labubu dolls bought in the U.S. found that 16 of the 20 tested contained cotton whose isotopic signature links it directly to farms in Xinjiang. The Times investigation followed an anonymous tip received by Campaign for Uyghurs in 2025.

Beijing’s repression of Uyghurs is now so deeply embedded in China’s economy that even trendy toys on American shelves are implicated. Under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, Pop Mart’s products should have been stopped at the border.

Pop Mart’s own record shows the political pressures surrounding its use of forced labor cotton. When Adidas pledged to stop using Xinjiang cotton because of forced labor concerns, Pop Mart ended a lucrative partnership with the company and defended its use of the cotton in Chinese court filings. Under Chief Executive Wang Ning, Pop Mart argued that Adidas had “baselessly smeared Xinjiang for violations of human rights” and “seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”

This is bigger than one company making one bad sourcing decision. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region produces more than 90 percent of China’s cotton and roughly 20 percent of the global supply. Textile hubs in Guangdong and Hebei, where Pop Mart concentrates production, are supplied by regular “cotton trains” from the region, often routed through intermediaries. Inside China, a truly clean cotton supply chain is nearly impossible to maintain.

A former Han Chinese police officer........

© The Hill