China’s Uyghur forced labour practice dents global industries invested in Xinjiang

Uyghurs, an ethnic minority in China comprising a predominantly Muslim population, are concentrated in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region (XUAR), established in 1955.

Following a series of sporadic violent attacks witnessed in Xinjiang by separatist groups since 2014, Beijing launched its ‘Strike Hard’ Campaign against violent extremism in Xinjiang, targeting Uyghurs and other ethnic minority populations, like the Turkic Muslims.

In 2017, unprecedented attacks and crackdowns on Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims ensued and became more systemic when China announced its intention of smashing all ‘separatist activities and terrorists’ in XUAR.

The Communist state-sponsored terror soon caught global attention when reports more than one million Uyghurs were reported to have been killed, arrested, and forced into detention camps/ prisons, in what Beijing calls its efforts of an effective way of ‘tracking extremism.’

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In the latest report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), global automakers are implicated in failing to ensure that Uyghur forced labourers are not being deployed as part of their aluminium supply chains come from China.

The detention camps/prisons in Xinjiang were claimed by China to be ‘re-education’ camps whereby ethnic minorities perceived to be ‘radicalised’ or ‘religious extremist’ are de-radicalised and are trained to acquire skills whereby they can become ‘employable’ once they ‘graduate.’

Even before the ‘Strike Hard’ campaign, under state-mandated programmes such as the Vocational Skills Education and Training Centre (VETC) system, minorities have been reported to undergo detention and being subjected to work placements.

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After 2014, another state-mandated programme, for so-called poverty alleviation was implemented with an employed forced labour transfer system, especially for rural workers.

In 2020, the Australia Strategic Policy Institute’s (ASPI) report mentioned that from 2017 to 2019, more than 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang and assigned to work at factories across China.

Under the Chinese government’s ‘Xinjiang Aid,’ some were even sent to these factories directly from the detention camps.

These factory chains involving electronics, textiles, and automobiles are claimed to be supply chains for about 83 popular global brands that are directly and indirectly drawing benefits from China’s practice of forced Uyghur labour.

These Uyghur labourers are said to be forced to work in a coercive environment, with no freedom of movement to leave their work as they are under threat of arbitrary detention.

However, China has denied this allegation and said the labour transfer system is not forced but rather voluntary.

Forced Uyghur labourers, working in factories both within and outside Xinjiang, are also reported to undergo ideological indoctrination (of the Chinese Communist Party), besides having to work in conducive and coercive conditions. At the same time, their freedom of movement remains limited.

In 2021, Human Rights experts in the UN raised concerns regarding China’s practice of detention and forced labour of Uyghur and other minority populations in China.

The following year, the UN reported having evidence to reach a reasonable conclusion that in XUAR, in sectors like agriculture and manufacturing, forced labour of minority groups has taken place, as reflected in the “involuntary nature of work rendered by affected communities have been present in many cases.”

This discriminatory practice of forced labour violates the International Labour Organisation’s Employment Policy Convention of 1964, ratified by Beijing in 1997.

However, despite the allegations from the UN and other international organisations, China continued with its game of denial, claiming its practice to be of ‘poverty alleviation,’ ‘vocational training,’ and ‘de-radicalization.’

In the automobile sector and other major industries such as cotton, textile and apparel, food products, polysilicon and solar energy, and electronics, abuse of Uyghur’s labour is reported to be present in major global industries outside China.

In the automaker sector, forced labour is overlooked because it goes beyond direct supply.

That is, Xinjiang provides the source of raw materials, parts, and products to global companies that incorporate them in their finished products at various manufacturing and production stages.

This makes it challenging to locate the origin of their semi-finished goods, risking global companies of containing the presence of forced Uyghur labour in their products.

The latest HRW report also claimed that global automakers also come under pressure from the Chinese government to have less control over their supply chains coming from China, further risking the use of forced labour.

Beijing’s aluminium industry supplies 15 per cent of the global aluminium supply, with Xinjiang being the source of nine per cent for China.

Further, the transition to electronic vehicles means that the demand for aluminium will only increase.

Therefore, the HRW report suggests that global automakers drive up their standards at mines, refineries, and smelters to ensure that human rights are not violated.

Even though China continues to deny these allegations to be ‘absurd’ and justifies its modern slavery in the name of its ‘counterterrorism’ measures, the international community has taken due note of this discriminatory practice the global capitalist system is unknowingly affiliated with.

The efforts by the US and EU to prevent the import of goods that are likely to be produced by forced labour in China are noteworthy here.

Let us hope the latest report provides a more substantial ground for the international community to hold China accountable for not only committing genocide within its territory but also practising modern slavery under the garb of state-sponsored programmes.

The author is the chairman of Law and Society Alliance, a New Delhi-based think tank. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views_.

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