If you are one of the millions of people worldwide wearing a face mask due to the coronavirus pandemic, this video may worry you. It shows a group of Uighurs arriving at a textile company that started producing masks in response to the pandemic. The Uighurs are a long-persecuted ethnic minority, largely Muslim. This video produced by Chinese state television appears to show grateful workers preparing for their new jobs. But behind this propaganda is a hidden story about a highly controversial government job program that experts say often puts people to work against their will. We reviewed hundreds of videos, photos, government documents, and shipping data to reveal how the growing demand for face masks is tied to this troublesome program. We identified several Chinese companies that use Uyghur labor to produce PPE. And we track some of your shipments to consumers in the United States and around the world. “The rural poor who are going to work in factories do not go by choice. There are these coercive quotas that make people work in the factory when they don’t want to. And that could be considered forced labor under international law. “All of this is driven by supply and demand. Chinese companies have been quick to produce masks as the pandemic spread through China and the rest of the world. In Xinjiang, Where most Uyghurs live, only four companies produced medical-grade protective gear before the pandemic. Now that number is 51. We found that at least 17 of them participate in the job transfer program. “Any company that is Acquiring masks or other personal protective equipment that you want to avoid the forced labor content on those products should not be obtained from Xinjiang. “Let’s take a closer look at a factory in Xinjiang: the company we showed you earlier, where the Uighurs came to its first day. It’s called Tianshan Textile. China proudly promotes the transfer program as a way to reduce poverty. So we can continue to workers to their new factory homes, thanks to reports in the state media. It all started here. In mid-March, the government transferred nearly 2,000 Uyghurs from Hotan, in southern Xinjiang. Their destination is Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang in the north. Fifty were sent to Tianshan Textile for a very specific task. – [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Tianshan did not respond to our request for comment. But it is a clear example of how Uighur workers meet the growing need for PPE. Now, let’s look at the companies that use the job program to make products that ship to the United States and around the world. Let’s first look at a company called Hubei Haixin. Use Uighur workers from the labor transfer program. His factory is located here, nearly 2,000 miles away from Hotan, from where the Uighur workers were transferred. We tracked one of Hubei Haixin’s face mask shipments from his departure port in Shanghai to the United States. It arrived at the port of Los Angeles in late May. The shipment was then received by MedWay US, a medical supply company in Suwanee, Georgia. Although MedWay US did not respond to questions from The Times about the origins of their products, we can see that they sell face masks online. The protective gear manufactured by Hubei Haixin is also available to American consumers on popular online shopping websites. The images of Uighur living conditions at the Hubei Haixin factory, proudly broadcast in state media, help explain why the labor transfer program is so controversial. They must attend a weekly national flag-raising ceremony to pledge allegiance to China. They must also learn to speak Mandarin. This form of political indoctrination is common, and we see it in more detail in another exporting company that we identify. This is Medwell Medical Products. According to state media, Uighurs make up more than 25 percent of the company’s workforce. Although an employee who answered the phone at Medwell told The Times that they do not have workers from Xinjiang, we know that there are Uighurs at the Medwell factory. In satellite images, we can clearly see their segregated homes. They have an assigned area on the factory grounds. They are surrounded by government indoctrination and take mandatory Mandarin language classes three times a week. From the government’s point of view, fluency in Mandarin and skills in factory work are key to assimilating into Chinese society. It is unclear how many masks Medwell sends abroad. But a Medwell representative openly promoted his robust export business in an interview on state television. – [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] And we discovered that it is also being sent to critical points of current viruses in Latin America. A Brazilian company called MedTrace received a shipment of facial masks from Medwell, but told us they did not know that he used Uighur workers. The job transfer program is part of a broader system of mass repression and incarceration. More than a million Uighurs and mostly Muslim minorities have been detained in recent years, some simply for their religious practice. The Chinese Communist Party says its tight control over Xinjiang is necessary to combat what it says is religious extremism. It is practically impossible to know who in the transfer program was forced to participate. Talking is incredibly risky. And the government is shaping the narrative. – [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] “In Xinjiang, it is not a practical possibility at this time to do effective worker interviews because no worker, whether on-site or off-site, can be expected to feel comfortable speaking frankly and openly with an interviewer, particularly if the issue under discussion is the issue of forced labor, which is the hot topic in Xinjiang from the point of view of labor rights. “But we do know that the transfers are widespread and often coercive. The authorities grant the regions subsidies for every worker they hire. They also impose quotas on the number of workers that must be transferred. “That puts enormous pressure on those government officials to find those workers. And that increases the risks that those workers are not working voluntarily.” Those who refuse to work in the program may be penalized. A 2018 local government directive outlines a system that qualifies workers at their level of cooperation. Those with low scores are subject to more indoctrination and their movements are restricted. Since 2017, almost three million people per year have been included in the program. The spokesman for the Chinese embassy in the US told The Times that Uighur workers’ rights are protected and that the measures, they cite, “help local residents overcome poverty through employment and bring about full life”. Earlier this year, an Australian expert group identified 83 major international brands whose supply chains were connected to Uighur labor transfers, including Nike and Apple. The situation has become so troubling that the US government warned US companies in July 2020 of the risk of forced labor in Xinjiang. And US lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to restrict imports from the region. “Forced labor is injected into the US and global supply chains.” “We know that many American, international and Chinese companies are complicit in the exploitation of forced labor.” But despite the concern, we found that troubled supply chain protection gear continues to reach the US and around the world. “Hi, I’m Haley here, one of the reporters in this video. Our team spent months investigating companies in China that use Uyghur labor to produce PPE, but we only realized how widespread the problem really is when we track a shipment of facial masks from one of those companies to the US If you want to see more work like this, let us know what we should investigate next, and be sure to subscribe for more Visual Investigations. “
