SHANGHAI/BEIJING — Jinjiang Group, a contractor for Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD said on Thursday (Dec 26) Brazilian authorities' portrayal of their employees as "enslaved" was inconsistent with the facts and that there were translation misunderstandings.

Brazilian labour authorities had on Wednesday said they found 163 Chinese nationals working in "slavery-like conditions" at a construction site for a BYD-owned factory in Brazil's Bahia state. BYD said then that it had cut ties with the firm that hired the workers and was working with authorities.

"Being unjustly labelled as 'enslaved' has made our employees feel that their dignity has been insulted and their human rights violated, seriously hurting the dignity of the Chinese people. We have signed a joint letter to express our true feelings," Jinjiang said on its official Weibo account.

Their statement was reposted by Li Yunfei, general manager of branding and public relations at BYD, on his own Weibo account. He accused "foreign forces" and some Chinese media of "deliberately smearing Chinese brands and the country and undermining the relationship between China and Brazil".

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