In a lively Muslim quarter of Nanchang city in eastern China, a sprawling Chinese factory turns out computer screens, cameras and fingerprint scanners for a supplier to international tech giants such as Apple and Lenovo | Photo Credit: AP

Key Highlights More than 80,000 Uighur Muslims are forced to work in supply chains of more than 80 renowned global brands ranging from technology to clothing to automobile sector Local governments and corporations are strongly encouraged by Beijing to find employment opportunities for Uighurs The overall working condition inside these manufacturing hubs strongly indicates that it is forced labour

Beijing: Tourists who have been to Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps in Germany must have come across the phrase “Arbeit macht frei (work sets you free), which appears on the entrance of the camps.

If forced labour played a crucial role in the wartime German economy with millions of Jews, Poles, Soviet civilians, and prisoners subjected by the Nazis to forced labour under brutal conditions, a similar situation is unfolding in China.

The Chinese government has transferred more than 80,000 Uighur Muslims out of Xinjiang to factories spread across the country that act as supply chains of more than 80 renowned global brands from technology to clothing to the automobile sector. The overall working condition inside these manufacturing hubs strongly indicates that it is forced labour.

Uighur Muslims integral to Xinjiang’s economy

According to a report by Australian Strategic Policy Institute, under China’s military-style management the cheap labour emerging from the Xinjiang’s ‘re-education camps’ has become a crucial and integral part of the region’s economy.

Facing humiliation and harassment in many forms, the Uighurs, the ethnic minority citizens from the far west region of China’s restive Xinjiang, are dispatched to factories in groups as part of the country’s ‘vocational training’ and political indoctrination programme.

Data collected by the study shows that Uighur Muslims from Xinjiang’s ‘re-education camps’ are sent directly to factories spread across China.

The report says that “this rapid expansion of the nationwide system of Uighur labour presents a new challenge for foreign companies operating in China.”

Source: ‘1,000 minorities, awaiting online booking’ (1000少数民族,在线等预约), Baidu HR Forum (百度 HR吧), 27 November 2019, online. Translated from Chinese by ASPI.

In the name of Xinjiang aid

The report shows that the local governments and corporations are strongly encouraged by Beijing to find employment opportunities for Uighurs. Under a policy termed ‘industrial Xinjiang Aid, the companies in China can participate in this programme in two ways: Opening up satellite factories or workshops inside Xinjiang to absorb ‘surplus labour capacity’ or by hiring Uighurs for their factories anywhere in China through a range of labour transfer schemes.

Measure to curb terrorism & extremism

While China has defended its actions by saying that it is taking these extreme measures to curb terrorism and extremism calling them a common enemy of human society.

Addressing the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2019, Aierken Tuniyazi, Vice Governor of Xinjiang said that Xinjiang has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times and defending Beijing he said that Xinjiang has taken preventive counter-terrorism measures and is addressing the root causes of extremism by setting up vocational education and training centres in accordance with the law.

“We aim to educate and save those who were influenced by religious extremism and committed minor legal offences,” he said.

The big question which now remains is whether human rights activists will launch a campaign to highlight this fact and stop consumers as well as celebrities to end using the products or quit doing brand endorsements whose names have been included in the report.

However, this outcome seems highly unlikely as both Han and Uighurs workers are employed in these interwoven supply chains.