Publication Date

2021

Document Type

Book

Description

In 2021, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that a total of “3.089 million poor people have all been lifted out of poverty … in Xinjiang.” While this may seem like a humanitarian success, the opposite is true; poverty alleviation in Xinjiang is a cover for government-sponsored forced labor programs, targeting ethnic and religious minorities in the region, such as the Uyghurs. As the result of recent reports by scholars such as Adrian Zenz, the world now knows that the Uyghurs have been victims of a plethora of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial detention, forced sterilization, mass surveillance, cultural genocide, and forced labor. For example, in 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute exposed nearly a hundred Western corporations whose supply chains included Uyghur forced labor. Our research provides an in-depth look at a single textile company in Xinjiang: Case Study “XT”. In order to determine whether forced labor occurred in this company, we looked at Chinese government reports, as well as press releases and annual reports from company “XT” itself. Additionally, by looking at the shipping records, we were able to confirm that this company ships to the United States, meaning that goods produced with Uyghur forced labor were illegally in circulation there. Section 307 of the U.S. Tariff Act (1930) bans the importation of all goods produced “wholly or in part” with forced labor. To avoid benefiting from forced labor, companies, as well as governments, should carefully examine exactly where their imported goods come from and how they were produced. Our research provides evidence on one such company, and our methodology can be applied to other companies that may be engaging in “targeted poverty alleviation” programs.

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Uyghur Forced Labor in the Xinjiang Textile Industry: Case Study “XT”

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