Chinese authorities are forcing Uighurs in Xinjiang to work elsewhere not only to escape poverty, but also to assimilate. Canada‘s The Global and Mail reported on March 2 that Chinese authorities have put a large number of Uighur laborers from Xinjiang on trains to work in factories thousands of kilometers away. The move is an attempt to “integrate” the Muslim minority into mainstream Chinese Culture and reduce their population in Xinjiang. Forced relocation and persecution are two Crimes Against Humanity that are taking place,” one scholar said.
According to Deutsche Welle and Voice of America, a report obtained by the Globe and Mail and submitted to senior government officials by researchers at the China Institute for Wealth Economics at Nankai University, the relocation of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities to factories outside the region “both reduces the population density of Uighurs in the Xinjiang region and is an important way to sensitize, integrate and assimilate minority Uighurs “
According to the report, this approach allows some Uyghurs to “gradually change their thinking and understanding, and transform their values and outlook on Life, in a changed environment and life, in the course of their labor work.
The report also mentions that the export of laborers “will have a positive impact on the poor minority population and families in Xinjiang, significantly increasing their income and raising their ideology, and greatly contributing to the long-term stability of all ethnic groups and regions, and achieving the unification of political, economic and social goals.
In September 2020, a white paper entitled “Labor and Employment Security in Xinjiang,” published by the Communist Party’s State Council Information Office, stated that since 2014, more than 100,000 people have moved to higher-income mainland provinces and cities for employment. In Xinjiang, “employment training” is conducted according to the principle of “training according to needs and training before exporting” and focuses on the common national language and script, legal knowledge, general knowledge of urban life and labor skills.
A researcher told the Globe and Mail that government-organized labor transfers have now sent more than 600,000 Uighurs and other Muslim minorities from Xinjiang to work in other parts of mainland China. Another several hundred thousand people have been sent to other areas of Xinjiang.
These laborers are on contracts of up to three years, but are able to return to their hometowns each year. Researchers say they are able to earn higher salaries compared to jobs closer to Home.
However, China’s labor export measures can encounter obstacles in the process of implementation. Public security departments in some labor-importing regions may refuse to accept all forms of laborers from the Xinjiang region on the grounds that they “may affect local security and stability. The report recommends that public security departments at all levels coordinate with all departments and regions within their jurisdictions to prohibit the rejection of laborers from Xinjiang on the grounds that they “may affect local security and stability.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Nankai report “reflects only the personal views of the author” and that many of the views “do not correspond to the facts,” according to the report.
Some factory workers told the Globe and Mail that laborers from Xinjiang are segregated, work up to 29 days a month and are prohibited from traveling freely. Some Uyghurs who have been sent to the factory in recent years said they had no choice.
A Xinjiang employee working at Fuze (Wuhan) Electronic Parts Co. said they worked until the eve of the Yellow New Year, when most of the nearby manufacturers had stopped working.
Mr. Wang, who works for Dongguan Oasis Shoes Co., said the Xinjiang laborers have their own dormitory and, at the same Time, work with Xinjiang people. They can also have their own restaurant.
An employee of Wuhan Hengfa Technology Co., Ltd. praised the treatment of Uyghur laborers to the Globe and Mail. He said that during a festival last year, “the government brought them lambs, barrels of oil and grapes.” The owner of a halal restaurant near Hengfa, however, said that the life of Xinjiang laborers is restricted, that workers who have signed one-year contracts “can leave only after the year is up” and that while they can walk to nearby stores on their days off, “they can’t go into the city “.
On March 2, the Jamestown Foundation, a U.S. think tank, released a special report authored by Adrain Zenz, a longtime expert on Xinjiang issues. The report is based on Nankai University’s “Report on Poverty Alleviation through Labor Migration in Xinjiang’s Hotan Region”.
The Nankai University report has now been removed from the official website, but Zheng Guonen has kept a backup copy, and the sealed disk is available on the Internet.
Zheng said the labor transfer program is different from the “concentration camp” detainees because it is based on a different policy system and focuses on a different target group. The labor transfer program, which began in the early 21st century, has gradually become more coercive, while the forced labor resulting from the detention of people has been in place since 2018.
According to the report, labor transfers in Xinjiang are not only for economic purposes, but also to forcibly remove minority populations from its heartland, with the official intention of reducing its population density and tearing apart homogeneous communities.
The report said, “A number of international criminal law experts agree that Xinjiang’s labor transfer program meets the criteria for crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, a ‘credible conclusion’.”
However, the Chinese Communist authorities have always denied the existence of “forced labor,” and Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has said that citizens sign labor contracts with employers in accordance with the Labor Law, the Labor Contract Law and other laws and administrative regulations, on the basis of the principle of equality and voluntariness and consensus, and receive the corresponding compensation. There is no such thing as “forced labor” as some people with ulterior motives call it.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also repeatedly criticized Zheng Guoyen, saying that he “makes a living by concocting anti-China rumors and slandering the Chinese Communist Party” and that his so-called report has “no credibility, academic value, or academic integrity”.
According to the Nankai report and information provided by Zheng on Xinjiang, Erin Farrell Rosenberg, an international criminal law expert who served as senior adviser to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, said there are “credible grounds to conclude” that Xinjiang’s labor transfer program violates the Rome Statute’s “international human rights standards. “In particular, there is ample evidence that the Chinese Communist authorities are carrying out widespread and systematic attacks against the Uyghurs” and that “forced relocation and persecution are two crimes against humanity that are are taking place.”
In addition to the disproportionate impact of the CCP’s policies on poor minority populations and families in Xinjiang, the Uyghur elite are also feeling the brunt of the pressure from the CCP.
The Uyghur cultural elite, considered a thorn in the side of the authorities, continues to suffer official repression, and many Uyghur intellectuals have been placed under house arrest and sentenced to prison. Many Uyghur intellectuals have been placed under house arrest and sentenced to prison, while their families in exile overseas are fearful and worried that Uyghur culture may not be passed on.
In addition, Freedom House, a U.S.-funded NGO, released its Freedom in the World in 2021 report on March 3, 2012, which ranked mainland China as one of the world’s worst performing countries with a score of 9.
According to the report, over the past year, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has carried out a number of large-scale crackdowns to ensure “social stability” in minority regions such as Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia. There is also new evidence of forced relocation of rural residents through some programs, forced sterilization of Uyghur women, forced detention of Uyghurs in “concentration camps,” court-ordered imprisonment of tens of thousands of people, and even credible reports of abuse and death in custody.
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