HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- A BBC investigation claims China is making hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities pick cotton across fields in the region of Xinjiang.
- They are allegedly forcefully employed in textile factories.
- According to BBC, researcher Adrian Zenz, who has trawled through government websites and state media reports found that systematic forced labour is affecting the whole of Xinjiang’s cotton industry.
- Zenz said previously, evidence for forced labour in Xinjiang pertained only to low-skilled manufacturing, including the production of textiles and apparel. But a new report provides evidence for coercion specifically related to cotton picking.
- In 2018, Washington-based think tank the Centre for Global Policy, referencing online government documents, reports that three majority-Uyghur regions in Xinjiang sent at least 570,000 people to pick cotton as part of a state-run coercive labour transfer scheme.
- Xinjiang, home to over 21 million people, produces a fifth of the world’s cotton supply.
WHAT DID THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT SAY?
- An estimated three million Uyghurs are reportedly detained in detention centres but the Chinese government claims that the centres are vocational training schools.
- It also claims that the factories are part of poverty alleviation scheme, and that people join in voluntarily.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
- About 20 percent of the world’s cotton comes from China, and about 85 per cent of that comes from the Uyghur region.
- Dozens of major global brands are accused of complicity by sourcing their supplies of cotton from factories exploiting forced labour.
- Activists claims brands Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas, Amazon, Calvin Klein, Gap, H&M, Patagonia are connected to forced Uyghur labour.
- According to a campaign group End Uyghur Forced Labour, major organisations claim not to tolerate forced labour but have continued to maintain business in a region where forced labour is rampant.
- On the 2 December 2020, the United States slapped a ban on both cotton and cotton products from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, one of China's largest cotton producers.
ABOUT THE UYGHURS AND XINJIANG
- There are an estimated 11 million Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
- The Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims from the Central Asian region. They are one of a few persecuted Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, including the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Hui T, Kyrgyz and Tajiks.
- Most Uyghurs still identify their native country by its earlier name, East Turkestan.
- China claims that the Uyghurs believe in extremist views and they are a threat to national security.
- Muslim minorities are allegedly being arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned.
- Xinjiang is China’s largest producer of natural gas and is a key part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
- In recent years, the government has installed advanced surveillance technology across the region, and there has been a surge in police numbers.
- China’s President Xi Jinping has overseen a radical approach towards the Muslim minorities living in Xinjiang, particularly the Uyghurs.
