China Uses Global Influence Campaign to Cover Up Labor Camps. (Again)

China Uses Global Influence Campaign to Deny Forced Labor, Mass Incarceration in Xinjiang

China Digital Times

A landmark investigation from The Washington Post has added further evidence to allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang’s solar industry. The systemic use of forced labor in Xinjiang is part of a sweeping government campaign targeted at Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities that has also used mass incarceration and forced sterilization to both “Sinicize” and “proletarianize” the region’s Muslim population. At The Washington Post, Lily Kuo, Pei Lin Wu, and Jeanne Whalen conducted an investigation into Hoshine Silicon, a major solar energy manufacturer that allegedly uses forced Uyghur labor:

According to company reports, local propaganda and other public documents, Hoshine Silicon, also known as Hesheng, recruits and employs Uyghurs and other minorities via state labor programs that aim to place them in factories. Researchers say these programs are a form of forced labor for residents who, faced with the threat of detention or other punishment, cannot refuse.

[…] In April 2020, Hoshine hired workers in Makit county, a Uyghur-majority district, who would be given “patriotism training” and “political assessments.” Recruits received copies of the essential points of “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era,” according to an article by an XPCC-run development zone in Shihezi in northern Xinjiang, where Hoshine operates one of its plants.

[…] In another report from September 2019, officials were described as “relieving” a couple in Dikan of their seven acres of grape fields. The couple were given jobs at Hoshine, about 30 miles away, as a mechanic and product inspector, according to the state-run Xinjiang Broadcasting Station.

Former residents said refusing these jobs was not an option, given the threat of detention. “You don’t have a choice. You must go,” said Abdulla Yunus, a Uyghur from Piqan who now lives overseas.
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