Xinjiang cotton camps 28 But the stories above are just some of the mounting evidence that reveals this system of modern slavery for what it is. ” This includes picking cotton to make clothes—16% of cotton clothes in the U. Xinjiang produces 85% of China's cotton and accounts for a fifth of global supplies. sanctions. Xinjiang is a major producer of cotton, which is mainly being picked by hand. China has denied these claims saying the camps Mar 29, 2021 · Xinjiang, China's biggest region, produces about a fifth of the world's cotton. Congressional hearing in October 2019, evidence was presented for multiple XUAR coercive labor Dec 10, 2021 · These videos at times pointedly used positive depictions of local Xinjiang life to directly contradict allegations of human rights abuses— for example, by creating content in Xinjiang cotton fields to counter allegations of forced labour (Figure 4). groups into reeducation camps (Zenz, 2018, 2022a, 2022b). Mar 24, 2021 · Xinjiang is rich in natural resources, especially oil and natural gas. The US administration on Thursday added 26 textile entities like traders and warehouses to the forced labour entity list, for having an alleged link with Uyghur labour camps from China’s Xinjiang, Nikkei Asia reported. Aug 23, 2019 · Washington DC. Keeping goods made with forced labor out of our supply chains promotes American values of free and fair trade, the rule of law, and respect for human dignity, and addresses unfair competition for compliant U. Oct 19, 2023 · An estimated 100,000 Uyghurs and other “ethnic minority ex-detainees in China may be working in conditions of forced labor following detention in re-education camps. May 24, 2022 · In December 2020, research seen by the BBC showed that up to half a million people were being forced to pick cotton in Xinjiang. [225] In November 2019, Adrian Zenz estimated that the number of internment camps in Xinjiang had surpassed 1,000. Since 2016, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) has subjected Uyghurs and members of other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) to genocide, state-imposed forced labor, and crimes At the turn of the 20th century, Xinjiang was a producer of raw goods, including cotton. and Xinjiang cotton accounts for 85% of Nov 27, 2024 · Bangladesh and Vietnam: Businesses alarmed over risk of 'cotton laundering' following US Xinjiang cotton ban Date: 27 Jul 2022 Content Type: Article; Japanese apparel co. 35 million roubles out of 3 million total exports) to Russia in 1902 were of cotton cloth. Human rights groups have voiced concerns that much of that cotton export is picked by forced labour, and in Jan 14, 2025 · What the Latest Clampdown on Xinjiang Cotton Means for Fashion. 4 percent of its cotton is produced in Xinjiang. Hundreds of thousands of people from ethnic minorities, including the Uighur community, are being forced by the Chinese authorities to pick cotton, in the fa Oct 26, 2022 · Around 20% of the world's cotton is made in China, with Xinjiang cotton accounting for 85% of all Chinese cotton, according to the BBC. An autonomous region in theory, in reality it faces restrictions which have only increased in recent years May 29, 2021 · A Jewish friend of mine compared the camps in Xinjiang to the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, sharing pictures of both online. But the so-called ‘Xinjiang cotton statements’ – declarations made by the brands seeking to distance themselves from Xinjiang and its cotton – were in fact released almost 12 months earlier. Apr 23, 2020 · The letter notes that several brands including Ikea and H&M have previously admitted that some of their cotton may come from Xinjiang, but that the companies said this was sourced in collaboration Mar 25, 2021 · The hashtag "I support Xinjiang cotton" is now the top trending topic on Weibo with more than 1. Jan 7, 2025 · The allegations have led to some big fashion brands, including H&M, Nike, Burberry and Adidas, removing products using Xinjiang cotton, which has led to a backlash in China, and boycotts of the Jan 12, 2021 · The report increased pressure on clothing retailers to remove Xinjiang cotton from their supply chains. In late 2018, the first reports emerged from Xinjiang that camp detainees were being subjected to forced labor (Buckley & Ramzy, 2018). Source: New York Times. The U. On January 13, 2021, the United States vetoed imports of Chinese cotton, claiming that they were the product of forced labor by the Muslim community of Chinese Uyghurs, held in “re-education” camps. Jul 15, 2021 · Members of the Uyghur minority group have been detained at camps in Xinjiang. The brands listed above are those most clearly implicated linked to cotton picked by Uyghur forced laborers. China has denied these claims saying the camps are "re-education" facilities aimed at Jan 31, 2024 · A federal report published in 2023 estimated that cotton from Xinjiang accounted for roughly 87% of China’s production and 23% of the global supply in 2020 and 2021. Mar 29, 2021 · China has been accused of forcing members of the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority to pick cotton in Xinjiang. Aug 5, 2021 · About 25km outside Kashgar, the biggest city in southern Xinjiang, lorries unload bales of cotton at the factory gates of Dongchunxing, a state-owned fabric-maker that started production just four The Chinese government has defended the camps where cotton and garments are produced as voluntary “vocational training centers” that serve to provide professional opportunities and eliminate extremism. and international manufacturers. . [226] Jul 15, 2021 · The US has already banned imports of Xinjiang cotton and tomatoes. May 17, 2024 · Washington (Reuters) — The United States has barred imports from 26 Chinese cotton traders or warehouse facilities on Thursday as part of its effort to eliminate goods made with the forced labor Sep 15, 2020 · Five companies or industrial parks in Xinjiang and one company in eastern Anhui province, which make apparel, cotton, computer and hair products, have been named in the new order by United States Feb 6, 2024 · Tomatoes and cotton grown in the region were banned by the U. "U. [2] Mar 1, 2024 · Largely targeting China, they respond to a growing body of evidence that Beijing is using forced labor and mass internment camps to control the Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang. ” The ASPI names brands, such as Zara, as potentially benefiting directly or indirectly from this unfree labour in their supply chains. 3 days ago · Mechanization of cotton production has become a normalized practice in southern Xinjiang. Mar 26, 2021 · Xinjiang, China's biggest region, produces about a fifth of the world's cotton. [8]: 5 Han says that because Xinjiang supplies nearly 84 percent of China's cotton, any cotton, textile or garment products from China are likely tainted with forced labor. Jul 15, 2019 · Satellite imagery lifts the lid on the size and spread of China's internment camps, used to indoctrinate vast numbers of the Xinjiang region's Muslim population. The Government of Canada expects businesses and individuals with links to Xinjiang or labourers from Xinjiang to undertake thorough due diligence and closely examine their supply chains to ensure that their activities do not support repression, including, for example, the Chinese Jun 22, 2022 · A forklift driver loads cotton from Xinjiang at a railway freight station in Jiujiang, China, on March 26, 2021. China has been using forced labor camps and prison labor to profit off of the cotton industry in its Xinjiang region, a non-profit organization said Thursday. At a U. United Arrows reportedly stops using Xinjiang cotton Date: 22 Jul 2022 Content Type: Article; China: Forced labour red flags in car battery supply chain Date: 4 Jul 2022 Nov 14, 2019 · Since China is the second largest producer of cotton in the world, Xinjiang province is responsible for 1 in every 5 bales of cotton produced GLOBALLY. China has imprisoned more than 1 million people, in a vast network of concentration camps. May 30, 2024 · The report also said Xinjiang was making about 18% of the globally traded volume of processed tomato products and that one in five garments made worldwide contained cotton from Xinjiang. “European companies find themselves increasingly caught between a rock and a hard place,” the European Union Chamber of Oct 25, 2022 · The UK government acted unlawfully by not investigating whether some cotton imports come from Uyghur forced-labour camps in China, a court has heard. 5 million. 22 February 2021 Below is an article published by The Washington Post. Jun 5, 2022 · The Chinese region of Xinjiang produces 20 per cent of the world's cotton. Yining Number 3 Middle School is now believed to be a detention centre. government starting in January 2021, and a new law barring all goods from Xinjiang kicked in from June 2022. Jan 14, 2021 · A farmer picks cotton in Xinjiang. China is one of the world's top cotton producers Apr 7, 2021 · The Xinjiang cotton-gate impasse has taken another turn, this time on the catwalk, as Chinese designers are pledging its use in their collections. As a result, there’s a high chance that clothes made by Xinjiang cotton are in your wardrobe. It's also, human rights campaigners say, produced by forced labour. Specifically, the two major systems of forced labor targeting Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) can be described as3: The Xinjiang internment camps, [note 1] officially called vocational education and training centers especially those made from cotton grown in Xinjiang Oct 14, 2024 · Cotton imports from Xinjiang are banned in the United States in part because of More than 1 million people are thought to have been held in reeducation camps designed to promote assimilation Han further suspects that the million Uyghurs in the Xinjiang internment camps are likely also used for forced labor in a similar manner. Mar 26, 2021 · China is targeting more Western clothes retailers as international backlash grows over claims of abuses in the cotton-growing Xinjiang region. Several imports from the resource-rich region, including cotton and tomatoes, have already Nov 15, 2019 · In a stunning display of greed—or possibly deep ignorance—two popular Japanese clothing brands have purposely turned a human rights tragedy into a selling point: Muji and Uniqlo have both been touting the fact that the cotton for their clothing comes from Xinjiang, China, an area in which a million Muslim Uighurs have reportedly been detained in “reeducation” camps. Feb 23, 2021 · The Washington Post. I immediately felt like this was a personal attack because China Dec 11, 2019 · Since spring 2017, the Chinese government has placed vast numbers of Turkic minorities into internment camps, which it refers to as “reeducation camps,” in the northwestern Xinjiang region. The textile industry is under special scrutiny. United Arrows reportedly stops using Xinjiang cotton Date: 22 Jul 2022 Content Type: Article; China: Forced labour red flags in car battery supply chain Date: 4 Jul 2022 Jul 16, 2019 · In September 2018, Australian clothing chain Cotton On sent representatives to Xinjiang in western China to assess a large textile facility in the Korla industrial zone run by the China-based Litai Textile Group. Photo AFP Last month, Chinese cotton yarn maker Huafu Fashion sent a warning to investors. 5 million Uyghurs are believed to have been interned in Xinjiang, where a paramilitary unit — which researchers have referred to as a colonial agency — oversees economic output as well as law and order. Examples of forced labor continue to be made public despite China’s tight grip on local media, ubiquitous use of facial recognition technology in Xinjiang, and censorship of negative press regarding its labor practices. Jan 5, 2021 · China has constructed a vast string of factories inside the walls of Xinjiang mass internment camps, and Chinese authorities are forcing thousands of Muslim minorities to work in cotton fields, according to two recent investigations. 47 Some videos in this category didn’t use footage from the region, but instead included a speech to camera or an interview contradicting May 16, 2024 · CHANGJI, CHINA – A seeding machine works in a cotton field during the 2024 spring sowing season in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. And nearly every link in the supply chain intersects with the government Nov 13, 2019 · Global retailers are facing scrutiny over cotton supplies sourced from Xinjiang, a Chinese region plagued by allegations of human rights abuses. Institutionalized Oppression: Forced Labor Programs Targeting Uyghurs and Other Minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. People have been subjected to Jul 28, 2020 · In July, more than 72 Uighur rights group and 100 civil society groups worldwide launched a campaign to end forced Uighur labor, demanding companies stop sourcing cotton, yarn, textiles, and May 2, 2023 · In December 2020, research seen by the BBC showed that up to half a million people were being forced to pick cotton in Xinjiang. [2] Turfan was Xinjiang's biggest producer of cotton, with 60% of its cotton exported to Russia, and around 45% of Kashgar's exports (1. The study tested a sample of items from February 2023 through March 2024. Up to 1. law set Nov 1, 2019 · According to its website, they launched the "Xinjiang Cotton Collection" on May 17 this year — a day after the Wall Street Journal published an explosive article alleging international clothing Jan 18, 2021 · The US ban on Xinjiang cotton “creates a situation where it is no longer feasible for any competently managed brand or retailer to see sourcing from Xinjiang as a viable strategy … unless they’re willing to take an enormous risk, not just reputationally but legally,” said Scott Nova, executive director of the Workers’ Rights Consortium. Researchers have uncovered similar Oct 4, 2024 · More than 90 percent of China’s cotton is produced in Xinjiang. “It’s brought negative effects to the company. In recent years, to enhance production efficiency and reduce costs, cotton growers in the southern Xinjiang have been actively adopting new technologies and investing in new machinery and equipment. Feb 13, 2024 · Xinjiang’s “Poverty Alleviation Through Labor Transfer program continues to expand,” Zenz continued. Mar 5, 2020 · China is a major producer of the world’s cotton—and most of it is grown in Xinjiang, where human rights experts say that detainees are now being “graduated” into forced labor in regional According to Quartz, the Xinjiang region is described by the Uyghur Human Rights Project as a " 'cotton gulag' where prison labor is present in all steps of the cotton supply chain" [ 173 ] Tahir Hamut, a Uyghur, worked in a labor camp during elementary school when he was a child, and he later worked in a labor camp as an adult, performing tasks such as picking cotton, shoveling gravel, and Dec 15, 2020 · We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Customs and Border Protection (CPB) personnel will ban all cotton and cotton products from the Xinjiang Jul 23, 2020 · China is the world's largest producer of cotton and, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics, 74. [Photo/Xinhua] Recent claims made by enterprises like H&M and Nike of refusing to use Xinjiang cotton have triggered widespread denunciation and resistance from the Chinese public. New policies on both sides of the Atlantic mean businesses will likely have to prove their supply chains do not pass through the Chinese region, where the reported detention of Uighurs in forced labour camps is rife. 3 days ago · Bangladesh and Vietnam: Businesses alarmed over risk of 'cotton laundering' following US Xinjiang cotton ban Date: 27 Jul 2022 Content Type: Article; Japanese apparel co. Subsequent research on coercive labor transfers into cotton-picking led to the US import ban on all Xinjiang cotton in January 2021 (Sudworth 2020; Zenz 2020). UK firms 'must In March 2021, Chinese social media began to buzz with the news that European fashion companies such as H&M had publicly disavowed the use of cotton produced in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous Dec 30, 2019 · Xinjiang grows 85 percent of China’s cotton, by official estimates, and is pushing to make more textiles and garments. Beijing denies any rights abuses. Bans Xinjiang Cotton Products, Tomatoes Over Forced Labor" 14 January 2020. It's also rife with re-education camps and forced labour for Muslim Uyghurs, making it the target of a new U. China has started to substitute Han-Chinese workers in the fields with Jun 20, 2022 · China has repeatedly rejected accusations that it is holding Uyghurs in internment camps in Xinjiang. Jan 6, 2021 · The report increased pressure on clothing retailers to remove Xinjiang cotton from their supply chains. Mar 26, 2021 · Xinjiang cotton is some of the best fabric in the world. Related topics Jun 20, 2022 · China has repeatedly rejected accusations that it is holding Uyghurs in internment camps in Xinjiang. Risk Response Strategies. S. 02:08 May 17, 2023 · Rights groups say more than 1 million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been held in re-education camps in Xinjiang, with a number of abuses that include forced labor. In the days that followed, fashion brands H&M and Nike suddenly became the focus of controversy. Jul 2, 2021 · Roughly one in five cotton garments sold globally contains cotton or yarn from Xinjiang, and many household names from the fashion industry face growing scrutiny for possible ties to the region The Xinjiang civilian police forces—including from the Xinjiang regional departments of the Ministries of Public Security and Justice—have provided officers and staff to administer and enforce detainee security in the camps, according to party documents and data reportedly Jun 28, 2021 · Cotton picker in Xinjiang. Xinjiang cotton accounts for 85% of Chinese cotton production, and 20% of the world’s supply. China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minorities into hard, manual labour in the vast cotton fields of its western region of Xinjiang, according to new research seen by Mar 26, 2021 · China rejects the accusations of using forced labour and denies holding Uighurs in detention camps. The Chinese state has been widely accused of human rights abuses in Xinjiang against the Ugyhurs and other Muslim minority groups. 11 Inside the camps, detainees are subjected to political indoctrination, forced to renounce their religion and culture Nov 13, 2023 · We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. M&S uses around 40,000 tonnes of lint cotton each year from various sources. So, I have an insider idea of how the system works. The Writing in the Journal of Political Risk in July 2019, independent researcher Adrian Zenz estimated an upper speculative limit to the number of people detained in Xinjiang re-education camps at 1. High-security detention facility in Hotan, Xinjiang. Jul 16, 2024 · Steenberg: I worked with German journalists on issues of forced labor, cotton picking, and clothing production in Xinjiang, and also interviewed people who were in a “re-education” camp and forced to work there. moves to counter the Mar 1, 2020 · Since 2017, more than a million Uyghurs and members of other Turkic Muslim minorities have disappeared into a vast network of ‘re-education camps’ in the far west region of Xinjiang, 10 in what some experts call a systematic, government-led program of cultural genocide. The central government has made a concerted effort to develop the region’s economy – prompting a large-scale influx of Despite the link between camps and factories, it is mostly those who haven’t been detained who are the main targets of Xinjiang’s poverty alleviation campaign. May 24, 2022 · Xinjiang is a mostly desert region and produces about a fifth of the world's cotton. It says the camps are "re-education" facilities being used to 3 days ago · A cotton picking machine moves in a cotton field in Dolatbag town of Bachu county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Oct 30, 2018. Sep 22, 2020 · On Tuesday the House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would block the import of all cotton from Xinjiang, China, processed by forced labor, the latest in a series of U. Why it matters: Xinjiang products are deeply integrated into lucrative supply chains around the world. May 7, 2024 · Of the 822 products tested, 19 percent had traces of Xinjiang cotton, the researchers said. According to Nova, companies and individual Dec 13, 2024 · The advocacy group, Stop Uygur Genocide (SUG), announced a legal challenge in June and sent the FCA a dossier in August alleging that Shein uses cotton from China’s Xinjiang region. There are widespread allegations that forced Uighur labour is being used to pick at least some of it. The labor transfer scheme, according to the report, “is the only forced labor policy that has been directly linked to the production of cotton, tomatoes and tomato products, peppers and seasonal agricultural products, seafood products, polysilicon production for solar panels, lithium Jul 23, 2020 · We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. It says the camps are "re-education" facilities being used to combat terrorism. At the end of China Fashion Week in March, Chinese brand Sun-Bird’s creative director Zhou Li took a bow at the end of her show – demonstratively holding a bouquet of cotton plants. As uncovered by an ABC Four Corners investigation, Cotton On subcontracts Litai Textile to supply it with yarn. including being placed in mass internment camps. There is evidence that new factories have been built within the May 16, 2023 · The forced transfer of Uyghurs into seasonal labor, such as cotton picking, operates separately from the reeducation camps—although the new research shows several prisons continue to operate Adrian Zenz reported that the re-education camps also function as forced labor camps in which Uyghurs and Kazakhs produce various products for export, especially those made from cotton grown in Xinjiang. “Multiple American brands have canceled orders,” Huafu said in a Shenzhen stock exchange filing, citing U. Some of the secure facilities have not been built from scratch, but are May 21, 2024 · "US bans 26 textile firms over alleged links to forced labour in China", 19 May 2024. 8bn views. Dec 2, 2024 · Independent experts and media say China, a global leader in cotton production, has forced Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to pick cotton in Xinjiang. An autonomous region in theory, in reality it faces restrictions which have only increased in recent years Jan 20, 2025 · The PRC government’s Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (Bingtuan), an economic and paramilitary organization with administrative control over several areas in the region comprising nearly three million personnel, forces members of prison populations and local communities alike to work in hazardous mining, construction, manufacturing, food processing, and—for many thousands of Apr 1, 2021 · The Xinjiang cotton statements. China denies this and, in recent days, critical brands have faced boycotts. 1964年的新疆棉花. Several imports from the resource-rich region, including cotton and tomatoes, have already May 24, 2023 · A worker watches as a machine processes cotton yarn at a Huafu Fashion plant, as seen during a government organized trip for foreign journalists, in Aksu in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Sep 3, 2021 · The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the Chinese state-owned entity that administers Xinjiang and directs the cultivation of most of its cotton, is both a corporation and an army. ” Huafu Dec 4, 2020 · Credit: Pixabay On Wednesday, the U. Apr 15, 2021 · This cotton is then exported around the world. had cotton from Xinjiang, according to a survey conducted in 2021. Aug 8, 2024 · The United States on Thursday banned imports from five more Chinese companies over alleged human rights abuses involving the Uyghurs, according to a government posting, as part of its effort to Mar 26, 2021 · Other celebrities also showed allegiance by sharing the hashtag “I support Xinjiang’s cotton,” which has been viewed nearly 5 billion times since it was posted Wednesday by party mouthpiece Jan 10, 2022 · The Xinjiang region of China produces a large supply of cotton used across the garment industry with “roughly one in five cotton garments…[containing] cotton or yarn from Xinjiang. Of the items that tested positive for Xinjiang cotton, 57 percent featured labels that claimed the origin of the merchandise was US-only, the researchers said. Mar 25, 2021 · This photo taken on June 2, 2019 shows buildings at the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center, believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are Sep 24, 2020 · Drawing on open source data including satellite imagery, Chinese government documents, official statistics and a range of authoritative reports and academic studies, the Xinjiang Data Project documents the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing program of human rights abuses and tech-enhanced authoritarianism in Xinjiang, and explores its global implications. will bar entry of all cotton products and tomatoes from China’s Xinjiang region, a sweeping move that prompted protests from Beijing and fresh vows to defend its companies. (Photo by Tao Weiming/VCG via Getty Images) The Biden administration has added 26 more companies to the list of Chinese textile traders and manufacturers whose goods are blocked from entering the United States because of their alleged ties to forced Jul 9, 2024 · Ending forced labor is a moral, economic, and national security imperative. Often from poor farming or Figure 2. WUC’s legal team said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe UK retailers had benefited from cotton made by Uyghurs held in China in internment camps. China Photos file / Getty Images. 新疆是中华人民共和国的主要棉花生产地，约占世界棉花产量的五分之一，占中华人民共和国国内棉花产量 Not all of Xinjiang's internment camps are the same. iuz mrpxq ilkkb olmhusq hupq avserbzx byda wxqtle febeu hhwi eddlb fikpfr kjwidv aazm vuiousg