CFU PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 28, 2026, 5:00 PM EST

Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org    

https://campaignforuyghurs.org/ 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A recent study by Dr. Adrian Zenz, Senior Fellow and Director of China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, introduces a new methodology for assessing and measuring state-imposed forced labor (SIFL). The research comes as the European Union’s Forced Labor Regulation (EUFLR) moves toward enforcement, and as governments continue to search for a workable way to hold authoritarian regimes accountable for systematic labor coercion.

Dr. Zenz’s study identifies a limitation in the International Labour Organization‘s (ILO) existing approach to assessing SIFL. It conflates the mechanisms states use to coerce labor with the purposes behind that coercion, making it difficult to develop practical measurement frameworks for identifying and assessing SIFL. The paper introduces the SIFL Categorization Matrix, an analytical tool that separates how states coerce labor from why they compel labor, along with a three-pillar assessment methodology through policy content, state capacity, and evidence of implementation.

The CCP’s forced labor system in the Uyghur region (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) serves as the article’s central case study. The research examines how Beijing uses multiple coercive mechanisms, including mass internment, state-directed forced labor transfers affecting millions of Uyghurs, and compulsory agricultural production, all in service of overlapping goals that include political coercion, ethnic discrimination, and demographic engineering.

The framework is designed specifically to support enforcement of the EUFLR, which acknowledges that existing ILO indicators are insufficient for state-imposed forced labor and requires the development of additional indicators specifically designed to assess forced labor.

“The world now has the tools to measure what Beijing has long tried to obscure,” said Rushan Abbas, Founder and Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs. “Dr. Zenz’s research makes clear that the ILO’s existing framework has fallen short of capturing the full scale of what the CCP is doing to the Uyghur people. This new framework gives governments and international bodies the methodology they need to act. There are no more excuses for inaction.”

CFU calls on the European Commission to incorporate Dr. Zenz’s SIFL Categorization Matrix and three-pillar measurement framework into its implementation guidelines for the EU Forced Labor Regulation. It also urges the ILO, national governments, and multilateral bodies to adopt this framework as the basis for measuring and prosecuting state-imposed forced labor worldwide.

Swift adoption of this framework is needed so that measurement can finally translate into meaningful accountability and consequences.