CFU PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13, 6:00 PM ET
Sabrina Sohail: sabrina@campaignforuyghurs.org
(650) 703-4523
https://www.campaignforuyghurs.org
Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) would like to announce the release of a new report by Dr. Adrian Zenz titled “Innovating Penal Labor: Reeducation, Forced Labor, and Coercive Social Integration in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.” This report, published in an esteemed academic journal, offers an analysis on the Chinese Communist Party’s use of forced labor and reeducation and the evolution of methods used to control and assimilate the Uyghur population in East Turkistan.
The report highlights China’s approach to reeducation and forced labor in East Turkistan, involving so-called “Vocational Skills Education and Training Centers” (VSETCs). Unlike previous labor reforms that blended work with reeducation, VSETCs focus on extensive reeducation followed by a gradual transition to non-prison jobs. This approach serves the Chinese Communist Party’s objective of assimilating and coercively integrating Uyghur and other Turkic ethnic groups into Beijing’s social structure, emphasizing economic sustainability as a key element.
In the study, there is an emphasis on the separation of reeducation and forced labor within concentration camps, diverging from the previous “Re-Education Through Labor System.” The report provides new policy evidence, demonstrating the gradual release of camp detainees for eventual placement in forced labor facilities, enhancing efficiency and allowing the continued use of forced labor even after camp closures. Witness testimonies from East Turkistan residents in the report confirm the long working hours and poor conditions in these facilities.
Dr. Zenz states that the Chinese regime’s VSETCs are primarily motivated by political agendas rather than economic ones. The report asserts, “The VSETC system’s greater economic sustainability, afforded by higher profitability, is designed to overcome non-Han resistance to ideological and ethnocultural assimilation and integration into the social order led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and dominated by Han Chinese culture.”
“We are deeply grateful to Dr. Adrian Zenz for his tireless work and dedication to exposing the truth about the situation in East Turkistan,” said Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of CFU. “Through this program and multiple other means, the Chinese government is erasing the Uyghur culture and way of life, all while making a profit. We need immediate action from the international community to end the suffering of the Uyghur people.”
CFU urges governments, organizations, and individuals around the world to read and share Dr. Adrian Zenz’s report to raise awareness about the ongoing human rights abuses in East Turkistan and join us in calling for justice, accountability, and the protection of Uyghur rights.
