Forced Labor Camps

The Chinese government’s ‘‘social re-engineering campaign’’ has now entered a new phase: mass transferring Uyghurs (and other ethnic minorities) of East Turkistan to factories across China to engage in forced labour. Government officials are now claiming that the ‘‘trainees’’ of the ‘‘re-education camps’’ or ‘‘vocational schools’’ have ‘‘graduated’’ and have been given jobs to reintegrated society. In reality, it is an exploitative government-led labour transfer scheme where detainees from the concentration camps as well as other Uyghurs residents outside of the camps are transferred and forced to work in factories as slave labourers. According to the German researcher Adrian Zenz, the Chinese government has begun establishing the labour programs in the second half of 2018 [1]. These labour transfer programs are under a government policy called the ‘‘Xinjiang Aid’’, more specifically ‘‘industrial Xinjiang Aid’’. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) believes that more than 80 thousand Uyghurs have been transferred between 2017 and 2019 [2]. By 2023, the local government aims to have one million workers in textile and garment industries.

The CCP claims that the participation in the labour transfer programs is completely voluntary. However, the Uyghur workers are in fact threatened with arbitrary detention (or further detention for the ex-detainees) in the concentration camps or have their family threatened, which doesn’t leave them with any choice, but to comply with the government’s work assignments. The workers’ families back home are put under surveillance as a reminder that misbehaving in the factories will also result in consequences to their family.

The conditions of the labour camps also suggest that it is actually forced labour. Their work in the camps are referred to as ‘‘surplus labour’’ and ‘‘poverty-stricken labour’’ where the Uyghur workers have a difficult time with the factories’ military-style management [3]. These workers can’t practise their religion, are isolated, have little to no freedom of movement and are very closely monitored (tracked physically and electronically). Moreover, they are obligated to take Mandarin language classes and learn Chinese propaganda outside of their long working hours. Evidently, the Uyghur workers are also paid less than the Han workers or simply not paid at all (despite the Chinese media stating that they’re being well paid).

According to the ASPI, at least 83 global brands and Chinese companies are benefiting from the use of Uyghur workers potentially doing forced labour through the government-led labour programs in China [4]. The ASPI has also identified 27 factories using Uyghur forced labour since 2017. These factories are part of the supply chain of the 83 well-known brands [5].

List of the 83 companies: Abercrombie & Fitch, Acer, Adidas, Alstom, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, BAIC Motor, BMW, Bombardier, Bosch, BYD, Calvin Klein, Candy, Carter’s, Cerruti 1881, Changan Automobile, Cisco, CRRC, Dell, Electrolux, Fila, Founder Group, GAC Group (automobiles), Gap, Geely Auto, General Motors, Google, Goertek, H&M, Haier, Hart Schaffner Marx, Hisense, Hitachi, HP, HTC, Huawei, iFlyTek, Jack & Jones, Jaguar, Japan Display Inc., L.L.Bean, Lacoste, Land Rover, Lenovo, LG, Li-Ning, Mayor, Meizu, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Mitsumi, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, The North Face, Oculus, Oppo, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, Roewe, SAIC Motor, Samsung, SGMW, Sharp, Siemens, Skechers, Sony, TDK, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Tsinghua Tongfang, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret, Vivo, Volkswagen, Xiaomi, Zara, Zegna, ZTE.

References

[1] US Government Publishing Office. (2019, november 18). Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2019 ANNUAL REPORT. Retrieved from https://www.cecc.gov/sites/chinacommission.house.gov/files/documents/2019AR_XINJIANG.pdf
[2]  Xiuzhong Xu, V., Cave, D., Leibold, J., Munro, K., Ruser, N. (2020, March 1). Uyghurs for sale. Retrieved from https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale
[3-5] Ibid