New Evidence of Uyghur Forced Labor in China‘s Cotton Industry
“We call on all companies to boycott China and stop being complicit in slavery.” – Prime Minister Salih Hudayar
Q3 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Forced Labor Of Uyghurs And Other Turkic Peoples
WASHINGTON: December 17, 2020 - Documents obtained by the BBC show that China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples into hard labor in the far western region of East Turkistan (renamed Xinjiang by the PRC).
The evidence suggests that China's cotton crop - a fifth of the world’s supply - could be far more dependent on forced labor than previously thought.
"Companies that engage in business with Chinese companies using the forced labor of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples from East Turkistan are complicit in slavery and genocide," said Salih Hudayar, Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile.
Nigel Adams's Comments
“Evidence of forced Uyghur labor within Xinjiang, and in other parts of China, is credible; it is growing and deeply troubling to the UK government,” foreign office minister Nigel Adams told parliament.
Adams was responding to the BBC report, which said some global clothing brands indirectly sourced cotton grown in the region. He said firms have a duty to ensure their supply chains were free of forced labor, Reuters reports.
"We call on all companies to boycott China and stop being complicit in slavery," Hudayar said.
Earlier this month, the United States banned cotton imports from a powerful Chinese quasi-military organization that it says uses the forced labor of detained Uyghur Muslims.
In late October, the Guardian reported that US senators sought to declare that China is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims, a step that could increase pressure on Beijing over the plight of an estimated one million-plus people being held in detention camps.
