Chinese authorities have put a large number of Uighur laborers from Xinjiang on trains to work in factories thousands of kilometers away, The Global and Mail reported Tuesday (March 2). The move is an attempt to “integrate” the Muslim minority into mainstream Chinese Culture and reduce their population in Xinjiang.
A report by researchers at Nankai University’s China Institute of Wealth Economics, obtained by the Globe and Mail, submitted to senior government officials, wrote that relocating Uighurs and other Muslim minorities to factories outside of China “both reduces the population density of Uighurs in the Xinjiang region and is an important way to sensitize, integrate and assimilate minority Uighurs.”
The Nankai University report adds that 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, providing a significant increase in their income and a major boost to 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.
A white paper on “Labor and Employment Security in Xinjiang,” published by the State Council Information Office last September, noted that since 2014, more than 100,000 people have moved to higher-income mainland provinces and cities for employment. In addition, Xinjiang has launched “employment training” based on the principle of “training according to needs and training before exporting”, with the main contents being the national common 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 China. In addition, hundreds of thousands more have been sent to other areas of Xinjiang.
These laborers have contracts of up to three years, but are allowed to return Home each year. Researchers say they can receive higher salaries than jobs closer to home.
However, the Communist Party’s labor export measures can encounter obstacles in their implementation. Public security departments in some labor-importing regions refuse to accept all forms of laborers from the Xinjiang region on the grounds that they “may affect local security and stability. The Nankai University 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 it affects stability.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry reportedly 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.
Some factory workers told the newspaper that laborers from Xinjiang are segregated, work up to 29 days a month and are prohibited from traveling freely. Some Uighurs who have been sent to the factory in recent years said they had no choice.
Xinjiang employees at Fuze (Wuhan) Electronic Parts Co. said they worked until the eve of the Lunar New Year, when most nearby manufacturers had stopped working.
The laborers from Xinjiang have their own dormitory and work together on the job, said Mr. Wang of Dongguan Oasis Shoes Co. They also have their own restaurant.
An employee of Wuhan Hengfa Technology Co., Ltd. praised the newspaper for the treatment of Uyghur laborers. During a festival last year, he said, “the government brought them lambs, barrels of oil and grapes.” But the owner of a halal restaurant near Hengfa said the life of Xinjiang laborers is restricted, that workers on one-year contracts “can leave only at the end of the year” and that while they can walk to nearby stores on their days off, “they can’t go into the city.
The Jamestown Foundation, a U.S. think tank, released a special report Tuesday by Adrain Zenz, a longtime expert on Xinjiang issues, that is also based on Nankai University’s “Report on the Transfer of Uyghur Labor to Poverty Alleviation in Xinjiang’s Hotan Region.
According to Zheng, labor transfer programs are different from “re-Education camp” detainees in that they are based on different policy regimes and focus on different target groups. While labor transfer programs began in the early 21st century and have gradually become more compulsory, forced labor due to detainees began in 2018.
According to the report, labor transfers in Xinjiang are not only for economic purposes, but also to forcibly move minority populations away from its heartland, intentionally reducing its population density and tearing apart homogeneous communities.
“Several 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’,” the report added.
China has 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 appropriate compensation. There is no such thing as “forced labor” as some people with ulterior motives claim.
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 China” and that “his so-called reports have no credibility, academic value or academic integrity.
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