Thousands of oppressed Muslims toil in “forced labor” conditions in a network of Chinese factories that supply dozens of major companies such as Apple and Nike, a new report says.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute identified at least 27 plants in nine provinces of China where Uighur Muslims have been sent as part Beijing’s alleged campaign against the ethnic minority group. The factories claim to be in the supply chains of at least 83 global brands, making products from Nike sneakers to iPhone cameras, according to the think tank’s Sunday report.
Some of the more than 80,000 Uighurs transferred to factories between 2017 and 2019 came directly from so-called “re-education” camps in the Xinjiang province, the group known as ASPI said in the report. Other companies implicated in the program include BMW, Gap and Samsung, the report says.
“It is extremely difficult for Uighurs to refuse or escape these work assignments, which are enmeshed with the apparatus of detention and political indoctrination both inside and outside of Xinjiang,” the report says. “In addition to constant surveillance, the threat of arbitrary detention hangs over minority citizens who refuse their government-sponsored work assignments.”
The so-called labor transfer scheme marks a “new phase” in Beijing’s attacks on the Uighurs, the ASPI said. The United Nations has estimated that more than 1 million Uighurs have been detained in the Xinjiang camps, which the Chinese government claims are meant to clamp down on terrorism and offer vocational skills.
At the factories, Uighur workers are prevented from practicing their religion, forced to learn Mandarin and take part in “patriotic education,” the ASPI said. At least some factories also pay them lower wages than their Han Chinese counterparts, according to the report.
“They have little freedom of movement and live in carefully guarded dormitories, isolated from their families and children back in Xinjiang,” ASPI wrote in the report.
China’s Foreign Ministry denied reports that it has violated Uighurs’ rights. Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the graduates of the “vocational centers” have gotten jobs and “now live a happy life.”
“This report is just following along with the US anti-China forces that try to smear China’s anti-terrorism measures in Xinjiang,” Zhao said at a Monday press briefing.
In a statement, Apple said it had not seen ASPI’s report but added that it works with its suppliers to “ensure our high standards are upheld.”
“Apple is dedicated to ensuring that everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve,” the company said.
BMW also said it could not comment directly on the report because its creators had not contacted the company. But the automaker said it holds direct suppliers to “sustainability standards” and asks about human rights in its purchasing conditions.
“Our direct suppliers are also required to implement our policies with their own suppliers and to cascade this further down the supply chain,” BMW spokesman Phil DiIanni said in an email.
“There are and have been no indications of any human rights violations” at Volkswagon’s plant in the Urumqi region, the company said in a statement. “Volkswagen’s Chinese joint venture SAIC VOLKSWAGEN employs people from a number of different ethnic backgrounds in its Urumqi plant, including Uighur people. Every employee in the plant has a direct working contract with SAIC VOLKSWAGEN. We are convinced that availability of jobs for all ethnic groups will improve the social environment in the Urumqi region.”
Other companies named in the report, including Samsung and Gap, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
With Post wires