Uyghurs For Sale

‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang.

Executive Summary

Since 2017, more than a million Uyghurs and members of other Turkic Muslim minorities have disappeared into a vast network of ‘re-education camps’ in the far west region of Xinjiang,¹⁰ in what some experts call a systematic, government-led program of cultural genocide.¹¹ Inside the camps, detainees are subjected to political indoctrination, forced to renounce their religion and culture and, in some instances, reportedly subjected to torture.¹² In the name of combating ‘religious extremism’,¹³ Chinese authorities have been actively remoulding the Muslim population in the image of China’s Han ethnic majority.

The ‘re-education’ campaign appears to be entering a new phase, as government officials now claim that all ‘trainees’ have ‘graduated’.¹⁴ There is mounting evidence that many Uyghurs are now being forced to work in factories within Xinjiang.¹⁵ This report reveals that Chinese factories outside Xinjiang are also sourcing Uyghur workers under a revived, exploitative government-led labour transfer scheme.¹⁶ Some factories appear to be using Uyghur workers sent directly from ‘re-education camps’.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has identified 27 factories in nine Chinese provinces that are using Uyghur labour transferred from Xinjiang since 2017. Those factories claim to be part of the supply chain of 82 well-known global brands.¹⁷ Between 2017 and 2019, we estimate that at least 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang and assigned to factories through labour transfer programs under a central government policy known as ‘Xinjiang Aid’ (援疆).¹⁸

It is extremely difficult for Uyghurs to refuse or escape these work assignments, which are enmeshed with the apparatus of detention and political indoctrination both inside and outside of Xinjiang.¹⁹ In addition to constant surveillance, the threat of arbitrary detention hangs over minority citizens who refuse their government-sponsored work assignments.²⁰

Most strikingly, local governments and private brokers are paid a price per head by the Xinjiang provincial government to organise the labour assignments.²¹ The job transfers are now an integral part of the ‘re-education’ process, which the Chinese government calls ‘vocational training’.²²

A local government work report from 2019 reads: ‘For every batch [of workers] that is trained, a batch of employment will be arranged and a batch will be transferred. Those employed need to receive thorough ideological education and remain in their jobs.’²³

Notes:

(10) https://www.aspi.org.au/report/mapping-xinjiangs-re-education-camps

(11) https://theconversation.com/despite-chinas-denials-its-treatment-of-the-uyghurs-should-be-called-what-it-is-cultural-genocide-120654

(12) https://www.npr.org/2018/11/13/666287509/ex-detainee-describes-torture-in-chinas-xinjiang-re-education-camp

(13) http://archive.ph/NkNJU

(14) http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-12/09/c_138617314.htm

(15) https://www.csis.org/analysis/connecting-dots-xinjiang-forced-labor-forced-assimilation-and-western-supply-chains

(16) https://doi.org/10.1080/02634930903577151

(17) The appendix lists all Chinese and global brands implicated, as well as the cities and provinces in China where the factories are known to be using Uyghur labour.

(18) This estimate is based on data collected from Chinese state media and official government notices.

(19) https://web.archive.org/web/20191212034310/http:/www.mohrss.gov.cn/SYrlzyhshbzb/jiuye/gzdt/201903/t20190321_312709.html

(20) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/world/asia/china-xinjiang-muslims-labor.html

(21) http://archive.ph/wip/Arq8K

(22) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-16/china-defends-vocational-training-centres/10384096

(23) https://web.archive.org/save/http:/m.ahmhxc.com/gongzuobaogao/16526.html