May 03
Visiting Xinjiang, Xi Jinping doubles down on hard-line policies against Uyghurs
Radio Free Asia’s Alim Seytoff and Mamatjan Juma spoke with VOC’s Dr. Adrian Zenz on the plight of the Uyghurs in relation to Xi Jinping’s recent double down on his brutal Xinjiang policies. As Dr. Zenz argued:
“Xi also emphasizes security as the priority in Xinjiang followed by the region’s economic development, said Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and an expert on the Xinjiang region.
‘In that context he strongly emphasizes cultural assimilation, Uyghurs learning Chinese, and a Sinicization of Islam,’ he told RFA.
Zenz also noted that Xi’s point on the need for Uyghurs to work in other provinces of China and along the east coast is significant because the government has long suppressed statistics on labor transfers to other provinces.
‘That’s actually a very important data point — an important point of evidence — and really an argument why the United States really urgently needs to add many more Chinese companies to the blacklist’ related to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
Signed into law in December 2021, the act requires American companies that import goods from Xinjiang to prove that they have not been manufactured with Uyghur forced labor at any stage of production.”
