All Reading
This section contains a curated list of useful articles, investigations, books and other reading materials. The list is updated on a weekly basis and suggestions for additions are welcome.
Starting Points:
Driving Force - Automotive Supply Chains and Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region
This report is the result of a six-month investigation analysing publicly available documents, which revealed massive and expanding links between western car brands and Uyghur abuses.
Uyghur poet and educator said to be serving 13-year prison term in Xinjiang
A prominent Uyghur poet and associate professor at a was detained as a “threat to social stability” and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2017 on a “separatism” charge, a local police officer told RFA.
Satellite photos show China's new nuclear test site in Xinjiang
China is expanding its nuclear test facilities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, an analysis of satellite photographs obtained by Nikkei suggests.
Until Nothing is Left: China’s Settler Corporation and its Human Rights Violations in the Uyghur Region
This report documents the human rights violations of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a state-run paramilitary organisation.
China’s Xi, in Xinjiang, signals no change to Uyghur policy
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, on a visit this week to the Xinjiang region where his government is widely accused of oppressing predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities, showed no signs of backing off policies that have come under harsh criticism from the U.S. and many European countries.
Making Xinjiang Sanctions Work - XPCC Policy Brief
This Policy Brief from the Xinjiang Sanctions research project summarises its key findings, contextualising the role of the XPCC within Beijing’s governmental strategies for the region.
Making Xinjiang Sanctions Work - Full Report
Can economic sanctions address Xinjiang forced labour? Drawing on 3 original datasets containing over 12,000 datapoints, confidential interviews and a year of research, this final report presents the most comprehensive analysis of Xinjiang sanctions to date, and offers ideas for strengthening them.
Long Shadows: How the Global Economy Supports Oppression in Xinjiang
This report uncovers how companies perpetrating forced labor and human rights abuses in Xinjiang are enmeshed in global trade and finance despite severe multilateral sanctions designed to cut them off from international markets.
The architecture of repression: Unpacking Xinjiang’s governance
This report is a part of a larger online project which can be found on the Xinjiang Data Project website. The project maps and analyses the governance mechanisms employed by the Chinese party-state in Xinjiang from 2014 to 2021 within the context of the region’s ongoing human rights crisis. The authors have located and scrutinised thousands of Chinese-language sources, including leaked police records and government budget documents never before published. For policymakers, this report will provide an evidence base to inform policy responses including possible sanctions. For the general public and anyone whose interests are linked to Xinjiang and China more broadly, this project can inform risk analysis and ethical considerations.
Part 3: Explaining Variation in the Growth and Decline of Detention Facilities across Xinjiang
This report explores trends in the growth and decline of nighttime lighting over detention facilities across Xinjiang. It reveals evidence to suggest that long-term prisons have become a greater priority than reeducation centers, helping chart the current trajectory of China’s widespread detention of Uyghur and ethnic minority populations in the region.
China’s ‘tainted’ cotton
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 the BBC. Based on newly discovered online documents, it provides the first clear picture of the potential scale of forced labour in the picking of a crop that accounts for a fifth of the world’s cotton supply and is used widely throughout the global fashion industry.
China’s system of oppression in Xinjiang: How it developed and how to curb it
This report describes the history of Uyghur oppression in Xinjiang, outlining the current conditions in the region and Chinese surveillance policies, as well as policy recommendations for addressing the ongoing oppression.
Bingtuan Supreme Court Affirms Jail Terms for Uyghur Youths
The Bingtuan Supreme Court in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region has upheld jail terms for 18 youths belonging to the Uyghur ethnic minority for alleged anti-Chinese separatist activities, RFA’s Uyghur service reports.
Gross violations of human rights in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region (includes erratum)
This report describes a pattern of gross violations of human rights in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. These violations include arbitrary detention and imprisonment, unfair political trials, torture, and arbitrary and summary executions. The main victims of these violations are the Uighurs, the majority ethnic group among the predominently Muslim local population in the region.