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:
US blacklists five more Chinese firms over Uyghur slavery
The companies produce magnesium and copper for export, and are accused of profiting from the slave labor of Uyghurs trapped in what Beijing calls “poverty alleviation” programs.
In Broad Daylight: Uyghur Forced Labour and Global Solar Supply Chains
This investigation reveals how forced labour in the Uyghur region has ripple effects throughout international solar supply chains.
Coercive Labor in Xinjiang: Labor Transfer and the Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities to Pick Cotton
Xinjiang produces 85 percent of China’s and 20 percent of the world’s cotton. Chinese cotton products, in turn, constitute an important basis for garment production in numerous other Asian countries. New evidence shows that hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority laborers in Xinjiang are being forced to pick cotton by hand through a coercive state-mandated labour transfer and “poverty alleviation” scheme, potentially affecting all global supply chains that involve Xinjiang cotton as a raw material.
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.
Addressing Forced Labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: Toward a Shared Agenda
The forced labor of ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), as part of a broader pattern of severe human rights abuses, is a significant and growing concern that demands the attention of governments and private-sector actors across the world. Products entering the United States, Europe, and other democracies are at risk of being affected by these forced labor practices, which often occur several steps away from global brands in supply chains.
This brief explores what the XUAR produces, the sectors that are implicated, the resulting sourcing challenges, and the opportunities for collective action to be explored in further research.
Uyghurs for Sale: ‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang
This report reveals how the forced transfers of Uyghurs to factories across China are linked to the supply chains of dozens of international brands.
Old suspicions magnified mistrust into ethnic riots in Urumqi
On the night of 25 June, two Uighurs were killed by a Han mob. A week later, a Uighur protest on the streets of Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, turned into one of the worst race riots in China’s history.