CFU PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 1:00 PM ET
Sabrina Sohail: sabrina@campaignforuyghurs.org
(650) 703-4523
https://www.campaignforuyghurs.org
Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) welcomes the new research article published today by Dr. Adrian Zenz, Senior Fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, that unveils the alarming expansion of the forced labor system in East Turkistan as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) strategically and increasingly conceals the atrocity of state-led forced labor under the guise of the so-called ‘poverty alleviation’ programs. The research article, “The Conceptual Evolution of Poverty Alleviation Through Labor Transfer,” provides a comprehensive analysis of labor transfer policies in East Turkistan, shedding light on the deeply concerning implications for the Uyghur community and international policy responses.
As global attention has focused on the grave human rights violations in East Turkistan, the CCP has become even more deceptive to continue its abuse of Uyghur and other Turkic communities with impunity. By manipulating the language of poverty reduction, the CCP presents forced labor as legitimate employment programs to international observers, a tactic that has also allowed the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to join an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention on forced labor.
Based on important new witness accounts, and several previously unpublished internal (secret) state documents from the Xinjiang Police Files, this article provides the first-ever conclusive evidence that Uyghurs who refused to be recruited into forced labor through state employment arrangements were put into camps as a punishment.
Describing the forced labor programs implemented by the Chinese government as an “assimilatory project of coercive social re-engineering,” Dr. Zenz emphasizes the escalating risk of forced labor for Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples of East Turkistan as the CCP appears to shift its efforts from a campaign-style method to a more institutionalized approach. Dr. Zenz also warns of the CCP’s international maneuverings: “After paying insufficient attention to systems of state-imposed forced labor for much of the past 20 years, the ILO and other western observers must see through Beijing’s propaganda.”
CFU echoes Dr. Zenz’s concerns and views the revelations of the research article as a stark warning against the CCP’s confidence in presenting its forced labor practices as legitimate employment programs to the global community.
“Whether through the camp-to-labor pipeline, the labor transfer system, or other methods of forced labor that have existed under the communist regime for decades, it is important to underline that Uyghurs have no agency to refuse displacement or slave labor,” cautioned Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of CFU. “Dr. Adrian Zenz’s latest research highlights the necessity of understanding the PRC’s diverse and evolving tactics in state-sponsored forced labor in East Turkistan. This knowledge gives us additional resources to further expose the Chinese regime’s ongoing genocide and human rights abuses, including Uyghur forced labor.”
CFU remains steadfast in its commitment to advocate for the rights and dignity of the Uyghur community. We continue to call upon the international community to take tangible steps, including by effective legislative action informed by credible researchers such as Dr. Adrian Zenz, to end the CCP’s forced labor practices and hold the Chinese government accountable for its genocide and crimes against humanity in East Turkistan. We also continue to urge businesses around the world to examine their supply chains to ensure that they are in no way, shape, or form contributing to or enabling these heinous human rights abuses.
