The world knows what's happening to the Uyghurs / Uighurs. Almost all global clothing brands are implicated in the use of cotton sourced from Xinjiang. The Chinese government forcibly relocates Uyghur men and women away from their homes and existing jobs to cotton fields. Here, they are paid at most 15 cents a day to pick cotton, with most paid nothing at all. They were placed in "re-education" camps in an attempt to strip away their language, culture, and hope. China tortures, sterilizes, forces abortions, rapes, and kills. They take their children away into "orphanages." Some countries have condemned China and some have supported them, even deporting their Uyghurs. Saudi Arabia has even deported Uyghurs on Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
Recent History
Testimonies
Mihrigul Tursun, an Uyghur woman:
Mamattursun Omar, a Uighur chef
Sayragul Sauytbay, a Communist Party member
Anar Sabit,
Gulbakhar Jalilova, an ethnic Uyghur from Kazakhstan.
Uyghur birthrate
Publicly Announces Support for China's Treatment of the Uyghurs
China Thanks 36 Countries, Half of Them Islamic States, for Praising Its Uighur Policies
Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Cuba, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Gabon, Kuwait, Laos, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, UAE, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.
Uyghurs are being deported from Muslim countries, raising concerns about China's growing reach
Malaysia Actively Trying to Save Uyghurs
Articles
Basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom eviscerates China over treatment of Uyghurs; calls out Muslim leaders, athletes.
Resources
Uyghur Human Rights Project How to Help - Contact congress, Stop forced labor, Sign a petition
End Uyghur Forced Labor
Stop Forced Labor Fashion
Save the Uighurs - 10 Things You Can Do Today
These companies committed to the Call to Action to act responsibly and prevent their supply chains being linked to the forced labour of Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples.
Brands The Use Uyghur Slave Labor
Recent History
- In July 2009, riots broke out in Xinjiang in response to a violent dispute between Uyghur and Han Chinese workers in a factory and they resulted in over 100 deaths. Following the riots, Uyghur radicals killed dozens of Chinese citizens in coordinated attacks from 2009 to 2016. These included the August 2009 syringe attacks the 2011 bomb-and-knife attack in Hotan, the March 2014 knife attack in the Kunming railway station, the April 2014 bomb-and-knife attack in the Ürümqi railway station, and the May 2014 car-and-bomb attack in an Ürümqi street market.
- Several of the attacks were orchestrated by the Turkistan Islamic Party (formerly the East Turkestan Islamic Movement) which has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries including Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States (until 2020), in addition to the United Nations.
- 2014 - China's "Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism" used a tactic in Maoist strategy - the people's war - against the Uyghurs. They hired more police officers by the thousands.
- 2015 China said a third of Xinjiang's Uyghurs were "polluted by religious extremist forces," and needed to be "educated and reformed through concentrated force."
- 2015 Chinese state-security was developing a "Integrated Joint Operations Platform" (IJOP) to analyze information from its surveillance data. According to an analysis of this software by Human Rights Watch, a member of a minority group might be assessed by the IJOP as falling under one of 36 "person types" that could lead to arrest and internment in a re-education camp. Some of these person types included:
- people who do not use a mobile phone,
- who use the back door instead of the front,
- who consume an "unusual" amount of electricity,
- have an "abnormal" beard,
- socialize too little,
- maintain "complex" relationships,
- have a family member that exhibits some of these traits and so is "insufficiently loyal"
- There is also a list of the 75 traits that religious extremists exhibit
- In April 2021, the Chinese government released 5 propaganda videos titled, "Xinjiang is a Wonderful Land", and released a musical titled "The Wings of Songs" which portrayed Xinjiang as harmonious and peaceful. The Wings of Songs portrays "a rural idyll of ethnic cohesion devoid of repression, mass surveillance" and without Islam.
- In 2017 John Sudworth is a British journalist that was previously the Beijing correspondent for the BBC. Sudworth and his camera crew were attacked and forced to sign a confession in a Chinese village. He left Beijing and moved to Taipei with his wife and three young children in March 2021
- In 2017 Uygurs and other Turkic Muslims were forced into the Xinjiang internment camps officially called vocational education and training centers by the government of China.
- In 2019 it was estimated that 1.5 million people, mostly Uyghurs but also including Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other ethnic Turkic Muslims, Christians, as well as some foreign citizens including Kazakhstanis, were placed in these secretive internment camps located throughout the region.
- In June 2021 - Uyghurs are being deported from Muslim countries.
- ....party theorists began to call for implementing a more monocultural society with a single “state-race” which would allow China to become “a new type of superpower....
- ....The papers also show how Beijing is pioneering a new form of social control using data and artificial intelligence. Drawing on data collected by mass surveillance technology, computers issued the names of tens of thousands of people for interrogation or detention in just one week. ....
- ....Former inmates say that they are required to learn to sing the national anthem of China and communist songs. Punishments, like being placed in handcuffs for hours, waterboarding, or being strapped to "tiger chair" (a metal contraption) for long periods of time, are allegedly used on those who fail to follow....
Testimonies
Mihrigul Tursun, an Uyghur woman:
Tursun said she and other inmates were forced to take unknown medication, including pills that made them faint and a white liquid that caused bleeding in some women and loss of menstruation in others. Tursun said nine women from her cell died during her three months there. One day, Tursun recalled, she was led into a room and placed in a high chair, and her legs and arms were locked in place. "The authorities put a helmet-like thing on my head, and each time I was electrocuted, my whole body would shake violently and I would feel the pain in my veins," Tursun said in a statement read by a translator. "I don't remember the rest. White foam came out of my mouth, and I began to lose consciousness," Tursun said. "The last word I heard them saying is that you being an Uyghur is a crime." Later on Mihrigul finds she has been forcibly sterilized.
Gulnar Omirzakh, a Chinese-born Kazakh,When she had her third child, the government ordered her to get an IUD inserted. Two years later, in January 2018, four officials in military camouflage came knocking at her door anyway. They gave Omirzakh, the penniless wife of a detained vegetable trader, three days to pay a $2,685 fine for having more than two children.
Erzhan Qurban, an ethnic KazakhHe was grabbed by police on a trip back to China to see his mother and accused of committing crimes abroad. He protested but, his time in Kazakhstan was reason enough for detention. He was locked in a cell with 10 others last year and told not to engage in “religious activities” like praying. They were forced to sit on plastic stools in rigid postures for hours at a time. Talk was forbidden, and two guards kept watch 24 hours a day. Inspectors checked that nails were short and faces trimmed of mustaches and beards, traditionally worn by pious Muslims. Those who disobeyed were forced to squat or spend 24 hours in solitary confinement in a frigid room. “It wasn’t education, it was just punishment,” said Qurban, who was held for nine months. “I was treated like an animal.”
Mamattursun Omar, a Uighur chef
He was arrested after working in Egypt, was interrogated in four detention facilities over nine months in 2017. He was asked to to verify the identities of other Uighurs in Egypt. Eventually, Omar says, they began torturing him to make him confess that Uighur students had gone to Egypt to take part in jihad. They strapped him to a contraption called a “tiger chair,” shocked him with electric batons, beat him with pipes and whipped him with computer cords. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” Omar said. “I just told them what they wanted me to say.”
Sayragul Sauytbay, a Communist Party member
She was abducted by police in November 2017 and forced to become a Mandarin camp instructor. “In every corner in every place there were armed police.” Sauytbay called the detention center a “concentration camp ... much more horrifying than prison,” with r*pe, brainwashing and torture in a “black room” where people screamed. She and another former prisoner, Zumrat Dawut, also told the ICIJ detainees were given medication that made them listless and obedient, and every move was surveilled.
Anar Sabit,
Before and after her internment, Sabit said that she experienced what Chinese sometimes call gui da qiang, or 'ghost walls' "that confuse and entrap travelers"
Gulbakhar Jalilova, an ethnic Uyghur from Kazakhstan.
Jalilova said she confronted one guard who sexually assaulted her. "I told him, 'Aren't you ashamed? Don't you have a mother, a sister, how can you do this to me like that?' He hit me with the electroshock prod and said, 'You don't look like a human'," she said.
Uyghur birthrate
Publicly Announces Support for China's Treatment of the Uyghurs
China Thanks 36 Countries, Half of Them Islamic States, for Praising Its Uighur Policies
Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Cuba, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Gabon, Kuwait, Laos, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, UAE, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.
- Egypt -has also deported Uyghurs to China.
- Saudi Arabia - detained Uyghurs on hajj and deported them to China. In February 2019, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman defended China's use of the camps, saying "China has the right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extremisation work for its national security." Saudi Arabia was among the 24 countries (excluding China) that backed China's position at the UN Human Rights Council in July 2019, and again at the UN General Assembly in October 2020
- Iran - Iran signed an October 2019 letter that publicly expressed support for China's treatment of Uyghurs.
- Belarus - On 5 March 2021, a group of 65 member states—led by Belarus—expressed their support of China's Xinjiang policy and opposed the "unfounded allegations against China based on disinformation" at the 44th session of Human Rights Council.
- Cuba - On 6 October 2020, Cuba delivered a joint statement with 45 other countries voicing their support of China’s measures in Xinjiang.
- Indonesia - Indonesia's largest Muslim organizations have purportedly treated reports of widespread human rights violations in Xinjiang with skepticism, dismissing them as U.S. propaganda
- Pakistan - signed both statements at the UN (in July and October 2019) that supported China's Xinjiang policies
- Palestine - Abbas voiced support for China's "legitimate position on Hong Kong, Xinjiang and other matters concerning China's core interests.
- Syria - December 2019, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates defended China's actions in Xinjiang days after the US condemnation, stating that it is a "blatant interference by the US in the internal affairs of the People's Republic of China."
- Turkey -In July 2019, Chinese state media reported that when Turkish President Erdoğan visited China, he said, "It is a fact that the people of all ethnicities in Xinjiang are leading a happy life amid China's development and prosperity." Turkish officials then claimed the paraphrase was mistranslated by the Turkish side, saying it should rather have read "hopes the peoples of China's Xinjiang live happily in peace and prosperity". Erdoğan also said that some people were seeking to "abuse" the Xinjiang crisis to jeopardize the "Turkish–Chinese relationship". Some Uyghurs in Turkey have expressed concerns that they may face deportation back to China.
- The UN Response 2019 UN counter-terrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov visited Xinjiang and found nothing incriminating at the camps.
Uyghurs are being deported from Muslim countries, raising concerns about China's growing reach
Even in Muslim countries that have traditionally been seen as places of safety for Uyghur Muslims, the sand is shifting.
Over the last decade, thousands of Uyghurs have settled in Turkey, with Uyghur neighborhoods and schools cropping up in the country's major cities.
In addition to sharing a religion with the majority of Turkey's population, Uyghurs — a Turkic ethnic group — also speak a similar language.
But in recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- who once championed Uyghur rights — has toned down his criticism of China's Xinjiang policy, in an apparent bid to boost relations with Beijing.
Malaysia Actively Trying to Save Uyghurs
In September 2020, Malaysia’s new government decided not to extradite ethnic Uyghurs to China if Beijing requests it. Despite the government of Malaysia's stance not to get involved in Chinese internal affairs, it has stated that Uyghurs are being oppressed in the country. Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, minister in the Prime Minister’s Department also stated that his government would provide free passage to those refugees who would want to settle in a third country
United States - House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy - “The ‘Woke’ party would rather keep turning a blind eye than stand against human rights abuses."
The Democrats support China. Don't forget Rep Swalwell dated a Chinese spy (and farted on TV), Diane Feinstein had a Chinese spy chauffeur for 20 years!
Biden's stance:
“We must speak up for human rights. It’s who we are,” Biden began, before discussing his call with Xi. “I said, look — Chinese leaders, if you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been the time when China has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven’t been unified at home. So the central, to vastly overstate it, the central principle of Xi Jingping is that there must be a united, tightly controlled China. And he uses his rationale for the things he does based on that,” Biden added. He then laid out what American “norms” and culture demanded of an American leader. “I point out to him: No American president can be sustained as a president if he doesn’t reflect the values of the United States. And so the idea that I’m not going to speak out against what he’s doing in Hong Kong, what he’s doing with the Uighurs … and Taiwan, trying to end the One-China policy … by the way, he said he gets it,” Biden said. “Culturally, there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow,” Biden added.
John Kerry the climate "Czar" - member of Skull and Crossbones along with George Bush.
“Clearly a priority of the Biden administration is really addressing climate, but it’s not the only priority,” Bloomberg's Westin noted in the interview. “There are other things as well, such as the Uyghur situation in the west. What is the process by which one trades off climate against human rights?” “Well, life is always full of tough choices in the relationship between nations,” Kerry responded.
Kerry’s brushing aside of human rights in China echoes previous comments he made during an April interview, in which he suggested the U.S. should push aside “differences on human rights” in order to pursue cooperation with China on climate change.
Articles
- Meet the “New” Uyghurs: CGTN’s Role in Mediawashing Genocide
- Break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins
- Uyghur organizations applaud the U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics
- Nike, Coca Cola, Apple fight to keep their slave labor
- China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization
- College Student Disappears
- The Orphaned Uyghurs
- Authorities using predictive policing and human surveillance on Muslims in Xinjiang, thinktank says
- Hotel Marriott Refuses to Host Conference on Uyghur Genocide in Prague
- China Retaliates and pulls H&M from shelves for boycott
- China’s Proof-of-Life Videos: A tool of intimidation and violation of Uyghur family unity
- MIT is helping three major Chinese companies develop technologies which are being used by the Chinese totalitarian regime against its civilians in a genocidal attack on individual rights and liberty
- Uyghurs For Sale - Australian Report - Doesn't mention murder but "cultural genocide."
- Since 2017, more than a million Uyghurs and members of other Turkic Muslim minorities have disappeared into a vast network of ‘re-education camps’ in the far west region of Xinjiang, in what some experts call a systematic, government-led program of cultural genocide. Inside the camps, detainees are subjected to political indoctrination, forced to renounce their religion and culture and, in some instances, reportedly subjected to torture. In the name of combating ‘religious extremism’, Chinese authorities have been actively remoulding the Muslim population in the image of China’s Han ethnic majority.
Basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom eviscerates China over treatment of Uyghurs; calls out Muslim leaders, athletes.
Resources
Uyghur Human Rights Project How to Help - Contact congress, Stop forced labor, Sign a petition
End Uyghur Forced Labor
Stop Forced Labor Fashion
Save the Uighurs - 10 Things You Can Do Today
These companies committed to the Call to Action to act responsibly and prevent their supply chains being linked to the forced labour of Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples.
- ASOS plc
- EILEEN FISHER
- Marks and Spencer Group plc
- OVS S.p.A
- Reformation
- TFG Limited (Hobbs, Phase Eight, Whistles)
- WE Fashion
Brands The Use Uyghur Slave Labor
- L BRANDS (Victoria Secret +) June 21: Wall Street Journal article reports: “L Brands […] said on its website earlier this year that it was committed to eliminating forced labor, including in Xinjiang. Its website has since deleted the reference to Xinjiang.”
- INDITEX (Zara, Massimo Dutti +) March 25, 2021: Inditex takes down forced labour statement.
- PVH (Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger +) March 25, 2021: PVH takes down Xinjiang statement.
- HUGO BOSS March 28, 2021: Hugo Boss tells Bloomberg that social media post promoting Xinjiang cotton was “unauthorized” and has now been deleted.
- VF (Northface, Vans +) March 25, 2021: Takes down Xinjiang statement. March 27, 2021: Uploads a new diluted version of Xinjiang statement. Mentions of “forced labour” have been scrubbed in this new statement. April 1, 2021: VF clarifies in a letter that, despite having taken down its Xinjiang statement out of an “abundance of caution,” at no point did the company change any policy or practice with regard to sourcing products from the Uyghur Region.
- Kelme March 25, 2021: Promotes use of Xinjiang cotton.
- OFILM’s website indicates the Xinjiang workers make screens, camera cover lenses and fingerprint scanners. It touts customers including Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Dell, HP, LG and Huawei, although there was no way for the AP to track specific products to specific companies.
Retailers Amazon private labels Burlington Stores, Inc. (Burlington) Costco Kohl’s Macy’s Inc. (Macy’s) Muji Nordstrom Ross Stores, Inc. Sears Holdings (Sears) Target Corporation (Target) Tesco plc (Tesco) TJX Companies Inc. (TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, HomeSense Walmart Inc. (Walmart, Sam’s Club, Flipkart, Bonobos) Walt Disney Wesfarmers (Kmart Australia, Target Australia) Woolworths | Technology Acer Apple ASUS Dell HP Lenovo LG Huawei Cisco Electrolux Microsoft OFILM Oppo Samsung Sony Xiaomi Automobile BMW General Motors Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes-Benz Mitsubishi SAIC Motors Volkswagen | Clothing & Shoe Brands Abercrombie & Fitch (Hollister Co., Ruehl No. 925) Adidas American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. Anta Sports Products Ltd. Apparel Group Ltd. (licensed apparel for NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) Burberry Group PLC Capri Holdings Ltd. (Michael Kors, Versace, Jimmy Choo) CHANEL Esprit Fast Retailing (Uniqlo, Theory, Helmut Lang, J Brand, Comptoir des Cotonniers, GU, Princesse Tam-Tam) FILA Foot Locker Gap Inc. (Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta) Guess Hanesbrands Inc. (Hanes, Champion, Playtex) | Hermès International S.A. HLA Corporation Ltd. Inditex (Zara, Massimo Dutti, Berska, Oysho, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius, Uterque, Stradivarius, Lefties) J Sainsbury plc (Sainsbury’s) Japan Display Inc. Kering (Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Brioni) Kontoor Brands (Lee, Wrangler, Rock & Republic) L Brands (Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, La Senza) L.L.Bean Lacoste Levi Strauss & Co. & Dockers Li-Ning Mayor Lululemon Athletica LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Celine, Sephora) | Next plc Nike, Inc. (Nike, Brand Jordan, Converse) Nordstrom, Inc. & Nordstrom Rack PVH (Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Heritage Brands portfolio) Ralph Lauren Corporation & Club Monaco Richemont Group (Chloé, dunhill, Peter Millar) Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade, & Stuart Weitzman) VF Corporation (The North Face, Timberland, Dickies, Vans, Jansport) |
Last edited: