Walmart has been charged in China for allegedly violating cybersecurity regulations, according to local media, the latest setback for the American giant, which has already been accused of halting sales of products from Xinjiang.
According to the China Quality News, which is sponsored by the country’s market regulator, police in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen detected 19 “vulnerabilities” in Walmart’s (WMT.N) network system in late November and accused the company of being tardy to remedy the flaws.
According to the article, Walmart was instructed to make corrections, but no fines or details of the vulnerabilities were mentioned.
On Friday, both the retailer and the Shenzhen police department did not reply to demands for comment.
This is the latest set of problems for Walmart in China, which has been criticized in recent months for allegedly removing Xinjiang-sourced products from its apps and shops on purpose, according to local media.
More than a million individuals, mostly Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been held in camps in Xinjiang, according to United Nations experts and rights groups.
China has rejected accusations of forced labor or any other abuses in the far western region.
Walmart has seen a wave of membership cancellations at its arm Sam’s Club in China since the Xinjiang issue. China’s anti-graft agency also accused the retailer and Sam’s Club of “stupidity and short-sightedness”.
While Walmart has not publicly commented on this report that a Sam’s Club executive told analysts on a call that the matter was a “misunderstanding” and that there was no deliberate removal of Xinjiang-sourced products.
In December, Sam’s Club was fined 10,000 yuan ($1,568) in Shanghai by the city’s market regulator for violating food safety laws after they found that a frozen vegetable product carried no production or expiry date, according to a separate local media report.
