The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Xi Jinping, has introduced widespread and far-reaching restrictions on the rights of around 11 million Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. The Chinese government for years has restricted fundamental human rights, especially the freedom of religion of these ethnic minorities. The tools and methods of control employed by the Chinese government are cruel and highly personal. Any form of expression of Uighur identity, culture and freedom is treated by the CCP as a threat to its power and is considered one of the three evils: separatism, terrorism and extremism.
Two recent reports on the Chinese Communist Party’s activities in Xinjiang have shocked the world and revealed that the CCP has reached a new low by detaining and enslaving ethnic minorities in its far northwest region. The first report, published by Human Rights Watch (HRW), titled ‘China: Big Data Program Targets Xinjiang Muslims’, has found that the Chinese government has employed ‘sophisticated’ data collection and analytics technology in Xinjiang, this system helps the Chinese official flag and identify Turkish Muslims, mainly Uighurs, and arbitrarily detain them in camps.
This new technology has given the Chinese the ability to target peaceful and law-abiding Uighurs and send them free of charge or due process to these “political re-education centers” for an indefinite period of time. The Chinese government has branded these centers “re-education” centers after they were discovered in a thinly veiled attempt to deflect blame and avoid international criticism.
HRW has revealed that China has developed a big data program that it uses to identify Turkish Muslims in Xinjiang for possible arrest. According to the report, the big data program is called Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), the system singles out people for Chinese officials to decide whether the person should be sent to a detention camp. HRW also accessed a leaked list of more than 2,000 detainees from Aksu prefecture.
The IJOP used this list to select Uighurs to be detained. The big data program has fueled the brutal crackdown on the Turkish Muslim minority in Xinjiang. The Chinese Communist Party has adopted predictive surveillance programs thanks to the development of big data and its use can identify Uighurs who are potentially dangerous to Chinese officials. The program collects data about people, without their consent, and uses that data to choose who needs to be detained.
Those who are flagged by the system are picked up by Chinese officials and sent to detention centers where they are held indefinitely without charge or trial. Their families and relatives are also not informed that they have been detained and are left wondering what happened.
A large majority of the people marked by the IJOP system, who are also on the Aksu list, were arrested for apparently legal and non-violent behavior. These findings are in stark contrast to Chinese propaganda claiming that “sophisticated” technologies such as IJOP were being used in Xinjiang to capture terrorists and violent criminals.
Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese government launched the “Hard Strike Campaign Against Violence and Terrorism”, a false flag campaign to eliminate the Uighurs. According to official statements, the IJOP system helps the campaign by identifying “violent terrorists” and hidden “criminal elements”, but the IJOP regularly points to legal and non-violent behavior of ethnic minorities.
In recent years, the authorities have intensified their repressive practices to forcibly assimilate Xinjiang with the rest of China. The Party also wishes to sever ties that Uighurs or other ethnic minorities may have with foreign relatives or family members.
The second report from an international think tank, the Center for Global Policy, revealed that the CCP has been forcing ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, mainly Uighur Muslims, to collect cotton by hand in a form of modern slavery. These ethnic minorities during the time of their detention, or shortly after their release, are forced to work in inhumane conditions for very little pay to pick cotton by hand. Xinjiang produces 85% of China’s cotton, which in turn accounts for 20% of the world’s cotton. The revelation that the vast majority of cotton coming from China is obtained through forced labor will have drastic implications for global supply chains.
The Global Policy Center report entitled ‘Coercive Labor in Xinjiang: Transfer of Labor and Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities to Pick Cotton’, has highlighted that Chinese government ethnic minorities in the region through coercive means to participate in the manual cotton picking. This enables the Chinese government to reduce dependence on Chinese labor have immigrant from outside Xinjiang, and also enables them to keep costs down.
Xinjiang produces more than 80% of all cotton in China. Some of the highest quality cottons in the world come from Xinjiang and the majority Uighur regions in southern Xinjiang produce most of the region’s cotton. Although China has the capacity and has deployed mechanized harvesters, the percentage varies widely by region, and most of Xinjiang’s cotton is still produced in regions with low levels of mechanization. This factor, combined with the need to keep production costs as low as possible, encourages a system of poorly paid ethnic minority workers.
The Chinese government also uses something called “labor transfer” schemes to alter the lives of minority Uyghurs and procure labor for cotton picking. Labor transfer refers to the transfer of rural workers, such as farmers and herders, to full-time salaried workers. Mainly, people in these schemes move to the manufacturing sector, but also to the service sector and paid seasonal agricultural work, such as picking cotton.
Not only does the Chinese Communist Party use ethnic minorities in cotton picking for economic gain, but another key goal that the Chinese government achieves through this forced labor is to keep ethnic minorities like the Uighurs under constant surveillance and keep them occupied. . The Chinese government can track workers who live and work in secure dormitories. It is much easier for the CCP to control the environment within these compounds than it is for farmers or herders. The report also indicated that Aksu, Hotan and Kashgar prefectures alone mobilized about 500,000 cotton pickers by coercive means.
The report from the Center for Global Policy for the first time succeeded in showing concretely that ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, especially the Uighurs, were forced to become cotton pickers. The Party also forced minorities to work in the cotton fields as a way to better monitor and control minority communities. It was better for the CCP to have the Uyghurs in the field picking cotton under the watchful eye of its officials rather than have them roaming freely as farmers and herders.
This unfathomable revelation that China has been forcing ethnic minorities in Xinjiang to become cotton pickers has profound implications that go beyond the borders of China and even Asia. Cotton from China through forced labor travels to countries such as India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Pakistan, where the cotton thread is turned into clothing.
Some countries such as the United States have already begun the process of banning Chinese cotton exports through forced labor. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kenneth Cuccinelli issued a warning, saying there is a high possibility that cheap cotton products coming out of China were made using ‘slave labor’ and that the Chinese government’s actions constitute some of the worst human actions. violations of rights taking place in the world today. US retail groups such as the American Clothing and Footwear Association and the National Retail Federation have welcomed the ban.
Organizations around the world have urged global fashion brands to cut ties, if any, with cotton and cotton products from China and Xinjiang. Swedish fashion brand ‘H&M’ has already announced that it will end its ‘indirect’ relationship with a Chinese cotton supplier over allegations that forced labor is used to obtain labor.
In March 2020, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) suspended its licensing and underwriting operations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region due to sustained allegations of forced human labor and other human rights abuses in the region. Adidas and Lacoste have also pledged to cease all activities with suppliers and contractors that have been linked to the use of Uighur forced labor in Xinjiang.
This low level of mechanization means that Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities are forced to become cotton pickers. The big data system developed by the CCP targets legal Uighurs and considers them suspicious of everyday activities like reading the Quran. The Uighurs are being held without charge or trial and are not even allowed access to lawyers or family members.
During their detention or immediately after their release, Uighurs are forced to become cotton pickers under the watchful eye of government officials. It is much easier for the CCP to control and monitor these minorities during their time as cotton pickers compared to their traditional vocation as farmers and herders.
In recent months, a global movement has been gaining momentum, urging international fashion brands to sever ties with China over reports that the Chinese government used slave labor. Brands such as H&M, Adidas and Lacoste have already vowed to cut ties with suppliers in China that have been linked to the use of Uighur slave labor.
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