{"id":7734,"date":"2021-01-13T23:36:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T23:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=149823"},"modified":"2021-01-13T23:36:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T23:36:19","slug":"repression-of-uyghurs-emblematic-of-worsening-rights-in-china-under-xi-jinping-hrw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/13\/repression-of-uyghurs-emblematic-of-worsening-rights-in-china-under-xi-jinping-hrw\/","title":{"rendered":"Repression of Uyghurs \u2018Emblematic of Worsening Rights\u2019 in China Under Xi Jinping: HRW"},"content":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s increased repression of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is \u201cemblematic of the worsening human rights situation under President Xi Jinping,\u201d sparking a mounting backlash from the global community, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday in an annual report issued the same day the United States banned all cotton imports from the XUAR over forced labor concerns.<\/p>\n

The crackdown in the XUAR\u2014where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps since early 2017\u2014as well as severe restrictions in Hong Kong and an initial coverup of the coronavirus that contributed to a global pandemic, \u201chave generated growing international mobilization against Beijing\u2019s rights record,\u201d HRW said in its World Report 2021<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernments increasingly realize that Beijing\u2019s rights abuses at home have global consequences,\u201d said\u00a0Sophie Richardson, China director at HRW.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat momentum should translate into support for independent investigations into Xinjiang, a new United Nations mandate to monitor human rights abuses, and an end to the Chinese government\u2019s impunity for serious violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the report, the Chinese government\u2019s efforts to \u201cerase the identity\u201d of Uyghurs and other Muslims continued in 2020, citing reports that more than 100 traditional Uyghur cemeteries had been destroyed in the XUAR, as well as other measures aimed at eradicating the ethnic group\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n

HRW also noted reports that authorities had built more than 260 large detention structures in the XUAR since 2017, further supporting claims of a policy of mass extralegal incarceration in the region.<\/p>\n

It said that under increasing international scrutiny, authorities in the XUAR have begun to send detainees to work at factories as part of an effort to label the camps \u201cvocational centers,\u201d although those held in the facilities regularly toil under forced or coerced labor conditions. In February last year, an Australian think tank revealed a list of 82 global brands that sourced from factories in China that used workers from the region under conditions that \u201cstrongly suggest\u201d forced labor.<\/p>\n

HRW\u2019s report was released hours before the U.S. announced it will ban imports on all cotton products and tomatoes from the XUAR, citing concerns over forced labor.<\/p>\n

\u201cForced labor is a form of modern slavery,\u201d Acting Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Kenneth Cuccinelli said on a call announcing the move, which follows similar bans on three hair-product and garment producers in the XUAR in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Made in China\u2019 doesn\u2019t just indicate country of origin\u2014it\u2019s a warning label.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\"A<\/a>
A farmer picks cotton in a field in Xinjiiang’s Hami prefecture, Oct. 14, 2018.<\/figcaption>AFP<\/small><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Cotton imports worth US $9 billion<\/strong><\/p>\n

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) to detain the goods at the country\u2019s ports of entry, saying that the agency had identified indicators of forced labor including debt bondage, restriction of movement, isolation, intimidation and threats, withholding of wages, and abusive living and working conditions.<\/p>\n

Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said that the WRO will apply to apparel, textiles, tomato seeds, canned tomatoes, and tomato sauce, as well as to products manufactured in other countries that use cotton and tomatoes from the XUAR. The U.S. imported U.S. $9 billion worth of cotton products and $10 million of tomatoes from China over the past year, according to the CBP. Most of China\u2019s cotton is from the XUAR.<\/p>\n

Last month, a report by the Washington-based Center for Global Policy noted that the XUAR produces 85 percent of China\u2019s and 20 percent of the world\u2019s cotton, potentially \u201caffecting all supply chains that involve Xinjiang cotton as a raw material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite efforts to hold Beijing accountable for its repression in the XUAR, HRW noted that \u201ca significant number\u201d of the Uyghur diaspora continue to have no information about missing loved ones in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Chinese government appears to have shut down some political education camps and \u2018released\u2019 detainees following global outrage, an untold number of Turkic Muslims remain in detention and imprisoned solely on the basis of their identities,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Chinese government-linked groups have used malicious hardware to hack into Uyghurs\u2019 phones both inside and outside of China \u201con a large scale,\u201d according to HRW, working to identify new targets for detention and undermine efforts by the exile activist community abroad.<\/p>\n

However, HRW said that an increasing number of governments, United Nations officials and rights experts, and civil society groups around the world publicly expressed concerns over China\u2019s human rights violations in 2020\u2014particularly with regard to the XUAR and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

In June, a group of 50 U.N. human rights experts called on member states to work to ensure that China respects human rights and abides by its international obligations.<\/p>\n

Britain, Canada respond<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. has aggressively ramped up its response to reports of abuses in the XUAR, with President Donald Trump\u2019s administration in July leveling sanctions against several top Chinese officials deemed responsible for rights violations in the region, including regional party secretary Chen Quanguo, under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.<\/p>\n

The move, which marked the first time Washington had sanctioned a member of China\u2019s powerful Politburo, followed Trump\u2019s enactment in June of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (UHRPA), which passed nearly unanimously through both houses of Congress at the end of May. The legislation highlights arbitrary incarceration, forced labor, and other abuses in the XUAR and provides for sanctions against the Chinese officials who enforce them.<\/p>\n

In October, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act, which the requires U.S. publicly listed companies to audit supply chains for forced labor. It also directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to require publicly traded companies to disclose imports of manufactured goods and materials derived from forced labor in the XUAR.<\/p>\n

That legislation followed the Sept. 22 passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which requires the Secretary of State to determine if imposing forced labor on Uyghurs and other Muslim Turkic groups constitutes crimes against humanity or genocide under U.S. law.<\/p>\n

Omer Kanat, executive director of Washington-based Uyghur Human Right Project (UHRP), applauded Wednesday\u2019s WRO on cotton and tomatoes and called on all governments to take similar actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the right decision, and more steps are needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUHRP has been calling for a complete ban on imports tainted by China\u2019s atrocity crimes against Uyghurs \u2026 Uyghurs don\u2019t understand how \u2018business as usual\u2019 has continued as long as it has.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The move was also welcomed by Rushan Abbas, executive director for Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU), calling it \u201ca bright spot of hope that justice will be had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to see more widespread regional bans and restrictions on Chinese goods to follow,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom\u00a0recently announced plans to strengthen its Modern Slavery Act in response to forced labor concerns in the XUAR, while Canada has issued a\u00a0trade advisory in connection to the region and Australia\u2019s parliament will soon consider a customs amendment.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s increased repression of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is \u201cemblematic of the worsening human rights situation under President Xi Jinping,\u201d sparking a mounting backlash from\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":692,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7735,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7734\/revisions\/7735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}