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A new report released by the British National Broadcasting Corporation “BBC” revealed that China is forcing hundreds of thousands of members of the Uighur Muslim minority and other ethnic minorities to perform heavy manual labor in the vast cotton fields in the Autonomous Region. from Xinjiang.
China imposes forced labor on Uighurs and exploits them to harvest the cotton crop, and in addition to a large network of concentration camps in which China has more than one million Uighur Muslims and ethnic minorities, members of the ethnic minorities are forced to work in textile factories. According to the “BBC”, more than half a million minority workers mobilize annually to pick cotton in poor condition surrounded by coercion.
Adrian Zenz, a researcher specializing in Xinjiang, said: “For the first time, not only do we have evidence of Uighur forced labor in the making and making of clothes, but it is directly related to cotton picking, and I think this will change the rules of the game. Anyone who cares about moral sources should look at it. ” For Xinjiang, 85% of the cotton produced in China comes from it. “
In 2018, Aksu and Khotan provinces sent 210,000 workers to collect cotton for the “Xinjiang Production and Construction Group.” In fact, the scale of the problem of forced labor for Uyghurs is great, with data indicating that 20% of the world’s cotton also comes from Xinjiang. Up to 1 in 5 cotton garments on the world market is likely to be the product of Uighur forced labor; However, it doesn’t stop there, as Uighurs also produce ready-made clothing, hair products, computer parts, and other common goods.
With the poor conditions surrounding the concentration camps, evidence indicates that the prisoners were used in textile factories in Xinjiang, and the BBC says there are many signs indicating how cotton pickers are subject to controls and surveillance.
The cotton industry in Xinjiang used to depend on seasonal migrant workers from other provinces in China, and with this, picking cotton is known to be hard work, and higher wages and better jobs elsewhere mean that immigrants have left. to come to Xinjiang.
Chinese authorities claim that work in the field of cotton picking is economically important for workers, rejecting accusations that they use forced labor in Xinjiang, and say that “the smiling faces of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang is the answer. more forceful to the rumors. “
In fact, Beijing is forcing poor rural communities into forced labor and severely restricting them.
The administration of outgoing US President Donald Trump announced this month that it would avoid importing cotton from Xinjiang.
Shipments containing cotton and cotton products from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Group (XPCC), a major cotton producer in the region, will be seized by the US Customs and Border Protection.
This step comes at a time when the US authorities continue to intensify their efforts to prevent products made through forced labor from entering the US market. This is the sixth order banning such products from Xinjiang, China, and an escalation of the restrictions.
