For a quarter of a century, China Labor Watch has been publishing one revelation after another: on the exploitation of female workers in Barbie factories in southern China, on minor trainees at Apple subcontractors near Shanghai, on workers on the construction sites of China's Belt and Road Initiative in Asia. Founded by activist Li Qiang, the NGO relies on his own work, that of an employee and a network of contacts in China. Its reports always have, in the background, the impossibility of defending one's rights because of the Chinese political regime. But the affront to Beijing should soon end: 90% of the NGO's million-dollar annual budget came from US federal government funding. Donald Trump's administration cut them off when he came to power.

Qiang is therefore preparing to abandon all investigation plans. "It's a huge gift to China, they must be delighted. For us it's really hard," said this man who himself worked on the assembly line in toy factories in China before going into exile in the United States. He knows of other NGOs working on China that are in the same situation, but few of their representatives are willing to talk, for fear of emphasizing their dependence on American aid, an obvious angle of attack for Beijing. The work of groups warning of the situation of Uyghurs, Tibetans and dissidents is threatened. For China, it's hard to imagine a greater boon than to see the power that was supporting them decide to turn off the tap on its own.

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