{"id":1516470,"date":"2024-02-23T18:51:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T18:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/uyghur\/uyghur-forced-labor-transfers-02232024134914.html"},"modified":"2024-02-23T18:51:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T18:51:29","slug":"uyghur-forced-labor-policies-seen-continuing-through-2025-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/23\/uyghur-forced-labor-policies-seen-continuing-through-2025-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Uyghur forced labor policies seen continuing through 2025: report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n
China has expanded its forced labor transfer program in far-western Xinjiang \u2013 moving Uyghurs from rural areas to work in factories \u2013 and plans to continue doing so through 2025, a new report says, warning that it will have far-reaching consequences for the 11-million strong ethnic minority.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Under a program that Beijing says is aimed at poverty alleviation, high-level Chinese policy and state planning documents call for intensified employment requirements targeting Uyghurs, according to research conducted by German scholar Adrian Zenz <\/span>published in a report by the Jamestown Foundation<\/span><\/a>, a Washington-based think tank.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But activists and experts say the program is thinly-disguised forced labor: Uprooting Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities from their homes and forcing them to work in factories producing everything from textiles and chemicals to car parts.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Longer-term, Beijing is using the program to achieve a larger goal, Zenz told Radio Free Asia -- controlling the Uyghur people, undermining their culture and ultimately assimilating them into Chinese society.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cUyghur society is going to be changed in the long term through labor transfer,\u201d he said. \u201cIt's a long-term strategy, and that\u2019s why China is doubling down on it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cChina is intensifying it because with labor transfer you can achieve cultural assimilation,\u201d said Zenz, director of China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou can achieve linguistic assimilation,\u201d he told RFA. \u201cYou can break apart communities \u2013 traditional communities \u2013 and break apart families.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Corporate scrutiny<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The report comes out amid intensifying pressure on multinational companies with operations in the region to cut their ties.<\/span><\/p>\n Earlier this month, German chemical giant <\/span>BASF said it is pulling out<\/span><\/a> of its joint ventures in Xinjiang. That came after a <\/span>German newspaper<\/span><\/a> in November reported close ties between the labor transfer program and a regional partner of BASF.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, automaker Volkswagen also has told RFA that it is in talks with its joint venture partner, SAIC-Volkswagen, over the future of its Xinjiang operations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A <\/span>report issued in early February by Human Rights Watch<\/span><\/a> suggested that Volkswagen may be using <\/span>aluminum made by Uyghur forced labor in China<\/span><\/a>, and has failed to minimize this possibility.<\/span><\/p>\n