Forced Labor in Xinjiang

In a new report from the Victims of Communism Foundation, Dr. Adrian Zenz, VOC’s Senior Fellow and Director in China Studies, examines new evidence, the current state, and proposed countermeasures for the CCP’s system of forced labor in Xinjiang.

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region operates two main systems of forced labor that together create one of the world’s largest systems of state-imposed coercive work, with over two million ethnic minorities at direct risk of forced labor. New research shows that Xinjiang’s forced labor has recently further expanded in scale, scope, and become more deeply embedded in society. As a result, foreign exports of goods made in southern Xinjiang’s Uyghur heartland— the epicenter of Beijing’s mass internment campaign—have soared by over 100 percent this year. These regions at high risk of forced labor now make up nearly one-third of Xinjiang’s foreign trade.

Scholars, activists and policymakers seeking to evaluate and counter forced labor have to contend with three challenges. First, the complexities and insidiousness of Xinjiang’s forced labor. Second, ongoing changes on the ground that are significantly affecting the dynamics of forced labor. Third, a lack of global research into this specific form of state-imposed forced labor, leading to significant gaps in our ability to conceptualize and capture it. New research summarized in this report seeks to address these three challenges.

Xinjiang’s prominent role in crucial global supply chains requires that countries enact legislation against the import of goods and inputs made in whole or in part from the region. To be effective, this requires a reversal of the burden of proof, requiring importing companies to prove that goods are free of forced labor. While such a reversal can lead to over enforcement (banning some goods not linked to forced labor), the alternative would be severe under enforcement that implicates the citizens and companies of rights-respecting countries in human rights atrocities, often unwittingly. The very nature of state-imposed forced labor requires such a measure, as this form of forced work creates endemic coercive risks throughout targeted regions, populations, and economic sectors.

To design effective countermeasures, policymakers need to understand Xinjiang’s forced labor systems and how non-internment state-imposed forced labor systems operate.

Read the full report here.