ALL Xinjiang related issues e.g. uyghur people, development, videos etc, In here please.

[Globenim]

So the usual tiny club of visa, money and liberation from US detention camps like Guantanamo for lies about China "victims" who are simultaneously oppressed but also running the oppression operation at conveniently every facility in every Chinese city in Xinjiang first hand themself and are simultaniously incarcerated in camps but also flying around the world as tourists and receiving Chinese state funded higher education, once again years after leaving China (some of them never even been there) suddenly remembered yet another convenient shocking unprovable story about China that conveniently targets a region and governmen the US regime has expressed and shown interest to destabilize and the usual nations of gangrapists and Muslim massmurderers suddenly remember how much they care about the wellbeing and rights of Muslims again, says US state run media.

 

[khansaheeb]

Full article -

Allegations of shackled students and gang rape inside China's detention camps | CNN

On the first day of her new teaching job at a Chinese government-run detention center in Xinjiang, Qelbinur Sidik said she saw two soldiers carry a young Uyghur woman out of the building on a stretcher.

edition.cnn.com

(CNN)On the first day of her new teaching job at a Chinese government-run detention center in Xinjiang, Qelbinur Sidik said she saw two soldiers carry a young Uyghur woman out of the building on a stretcher.
"There was no spark of life in her face. Her cheeks were drained of color, she was not breathing," said Sidik, a former elementary school teacher who says she was forced to spend several months teaching at two detention centers in Xinjiang in 2017.
A policewoman who worked at the camp later told her the woman had died from heavy bleeding, though she didn't say what caused it. It was the first of many stories the policewoman would tell Sidik during the teacher's three-month assignment at the heavily-fortified building that housed female detainees.

Propaganda always comes in the form of he said she said and never without any solid proof.

 

[Globenim]

Propaganda always comes in the form of he said she said and never without any solid proof.

Well its obvious they are lying but at least they could try not insult the intelligence of everyone with an IQ above room temperature . US government hired/blackmailed people suddenly come up with these stories years after living in America? People claiming to be interned in China while commuting through the country and traveling the entire world as regular tourists in and from China? Christian and Hindutva rightwing radicals pretending to care about Muslim rights?

 

[rent4country]

On the first day of her new teaching job at a Chinese government-run detention center in Xinjiang, Qelbinur Sidik said she saw two soldiers carry a young Uyghur woman out of the building on a stretcher.

"There was no spark of life in her face. Her cheeks were drained of color, she was not breathing," said Sidik, a former elementary school teacher who says she was forced to spend several months teaching at two detention centers in Xinjiang in 2017.

A policewoman who worked at the camp later told her the woman had died from heavy bleeding, though she didn't say what caused it. It was the first of many stories the policewoman would tell Sidik during the teacher's three-month assignment at the heavily-fortified building that housed female detainees.

According to Sidik, the policewoman claimed to have been assigned to investigate reports of rape at the center by her superiors, though CNN has no evidence of that claim. However, Sidik said what she heard and saw herself was so disturbing that it made her ill.

Sidik's allegations are similar to those of former detainees who have spoken of rape and systematic sexual assault within China's vast detention network.

Her testimony is a rare account of a worker's direct experience of life inside the detention centers, where the US government alleges China is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities through a repressive campaign of mass detention, torture, forced birth control and abortions.

The Chinese government has rejected allegations of genocide, and in a statement to CNN said "there is no so-called 'systematic sexual assault and abuse against women' in Xinjiang."

However, Sidik said the female police officer described how her male colleagues used to boast about it. "When (male guards) were drinking at night, the policemen would tell each other how they raped and tortured girls," Sidik told CNN from her new home in the Netherlands.

Qelbinur Sidik went from being an elementary school teacher to someone forced to teach Mandarin to detainees.

Inside the camps
An ethnic Uzbek, Sidik grew up in Xinjiang and spent 28 years teaching elementary school students aged from six to 13. In September 2016, she said she was summoned to a meeting at the Saybagh District Bureau of Education and told she'd be working with "illiterates."

In March 2017, she met her new students -- about 100 men and a handful of women. "They came in, their feet and hands chained in shackles," she said.

At her first lesson, Sidik said she turned to the chalkboard only to hear the detainees behind her crying. "I turned slightly, I saw their tears falling down their beards, the female detainees were crying loudly," she said.

Young detainees who arrived at the centers "fit, robust and bright-eyed" quickly sickened and weakened, she said. From her classroom in the basement of one camp, Sidik said she could hear screams. When she asked about their cries, she claims a male policeman told her that detainees were being tortured.

"During the time I was teaching in there, I witnessed horrific tragedy," Sidik said.


CNN has no way of verifying Sidik's account from inside the detention centers. However, former Xinjiang detainees have told CNN they were subjected to political indoctrination and abuse, and Uyghurs who now live abroad have described relatives disappearing into detention. Leaked documents provided to CNN showed Uyghurs could be sent to the camps for as little as having a beard or wearing a veil.

The Chinese government has claimed the camps are "vocational training centers," part of an official strategy to both stamp out violent Islamist extremism and create jobs.

"There is no 'rounding up thousands of Uyghur Muslims'," said Xu Guixiang, a spokesperson for the Communist Party publicity department in Xinjiang, at a government press conference on February 1.

"What we have cracked down on, according to the law, are a few heinous and obstinate leaders and backbones of extremist groups. What we have rescued are those who have been infected with religious extremism and committed minor crimes."
'Then I was gang raped'

Tursunay Ziyawudun said she had committed no crime when she was first detained in April 2017, after returning home to Xinjiang's Xinyuan County to obtain official documents. She and her husband had been living for five years in neighboring Kazakhstan.

Her husband, Halmirza Halik, an ethnic Kazakh, was not detained and tracked her down to the Xinyuan County Vocational School. "We spoke through the iron gate of the school," said Halik, speaking by phone with CNN from Kazakhstan. "She cried after seeing me. I told her don't be afraid ... you have not broken the law and there is nothing to worry about."

Speaking to CNN from the US, Tursunay Ziyawudun said that she was taken to a cell with about 20 other women, where they were given little food and water.

The authorities released Ziyawudun after a month in detention, but then summoned her back to the camp in March 2018, which she claimed marked the beginning of a 9-month nightmare.
Speaking to CNN from the US, Ziyawudun said that she was taken to a cell with about 20 other women, where they were given little food and water and only allowed to use the toilet once a day for three to five minutes. "Those who took more time were electrocuted with shock batons," she said.
During her detention, Ziyawudun says guards interrogated her about her years in Kazakhstan, asking whether she had ties to Uyghur exile groups.
During one of these sessions, she claims police officers kicked and beat her until she passed out. Another time, while still bruised from her beating, Ziyawudun claimed two female guards took her to another room where they laid her on a table. "They inserted a stun baton inside me and twisted and shocked me with it. I blacked out," she said.

Allegations of shackled students and gang rape inside China's detention camps | CNN

On the first day of her new teaching job at a Chinese government-run detention center in Xinjiang, Qelbinur Sidik said she saw two soldiers carry a young Uyghur woman out of the building on a stretcher.

www.cnn.com

 

[atan651]

these people have very rich imagination.

 

[PAKISTANFOREVER]

Source of the OP is cnn. The SAME cnn that claimed Iraq has wmd that can destroy Europe in 30 mins............

 

[flameboard]

these people have very rich imagination.

People are in detention camps stripped of dignity and rights and you’re doubting rape victims?

This is the kinda mindset I expect from Indians trying to justify their rape culture

 

[terry5]

Source of the OP is cnn. The SAME cnn that claimed Iraq has wmd that can destroy Europe in 30 mins............

lol your such a Chinese bootlicker you have to peddle your false fantasies .

Report: No WMD stockpiles in Iraq
CIA: Saddam intended to make arms if sanctions ended
Thursday, October 7, 2004 Posted: 1450 GMT (2250 HKT)

	Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, testifies Wednesday at a Senate Armed Services committee hearing.​
	​ VIDEO According to a report by the CIA's Charles Duelfer, Saddam Hussein did not have WMD when the war began. PLAY VIDEO Duelfer appears before a Senate committee to testify on Iraq's weapons capabilities. PLAY VIDEO RELATED • Report links U.N. to Iraq bribes • Saddam was fixated on Iran • Blair: Sanctions weren't working • Interactive: The search for WMD SPECIAL REPORT • Interactive: Who's who in Iraq • Interactive: Sectarian divide • Timeline: Bloodiest days for civilians • Coalition Casualties • Special Report YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Iraq or Create your own​ Manage alerts | What is this?​

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and had not begun any program to produce them, a CIA report concludes.

In fact, the long-awaited report, authored by Charles Duelfer, who advises the director of central intelligence on Iraqi weapons, says Iraq's WMD program was essentially destroyed in 1991 and Saddam ended Iraq's nuclear program after the 1991 Gulf War.

The Iraq Survey Group report, released Wednesday, is 1,200 to 1,500 pages long.

The massive report does say, however, that Iraq worked hard to cheat on United Nations-imposed sanctions and retain the capability to resume production of weapons of mass destruction at some time in the future.

"[Saddam] wanted to end sanctions while preserving the capability to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction when sanctions were lifted," a summary of the report says.

Duelfer, testifying at a Senate hearing on the report, said his account attempts to describe Iraq's weapons programs "not in isolation but in the context of the aims and objectives of the regime that created and used them."

"I also have insisted that the report include as much basic data as reasonable and that it be unclassified, since the tragedy that has been Iraq has exacted such a huge cost for so many for so long," Duelfer said.

The report was released nearly two years ago to the day that President Bush strode onto a stage in Cincinnati and told the audience that Saddam Hussein's Iraq "possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons" and "is seeking nuclear weapons."

"The danger is already significant and it only grows worse with time," Bush said in the speech delivered October 7, 2002. "If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today -- and we do -- does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?"

Speaking on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, Bush maintained Wednesday that the war was the right thing to do and that Iraq stood out as a place where terrorists might get weapons of mass destruction.

"There was a risk, a real risk, that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons or materials or information to terrorist networks, and in the world after September the 11th, that was a risk we could not afford to take," Bush said.

But Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, seized on the report as political ammunition against the Bush administration.

"Despite the efforts to focus on Saddam's desires and intentions, the bottom line is Iraq did not have either weapon stockpiles or active production capabilities at the time of the war," Rockefeller said in a press release.

"The report does further document Saddam's attempts to deceive the world and get out from under the sanctions, but the fact remains, the sanctions combined with inspections were working and Saddam was restrained."

But British Prime Minister Tony Blair had just the opposite take on the information in the report, saying it demonstrated the U.N. sanctions were not working and Saddam was "doing his best" to get around them.

He said the report made clear that there was "every intention" on Saddam's part to develop WMD and he "never had any intention of complying with U.N. resolutions."

At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday, panel Chairman John Warner, R-Virginia, called the findings "significant."

"While the ISG has not found stockpiles of WMD, the ISG and other coalition elements have developed a body of fact that shows that Saddam Hussein had, first, the strategic intention to continue to pursue WMD capabilities; two, created ambiguity about his WMD capabilities that he used to extract concessions in the international world of disclosure and discussion and negotiation.

"He used it as a bargaining tactic and as a strategic deterrent against his neighbors and others."

"As we speak, over 1,700 individuals -- military and civilian -- are in Iraq and Qatar, continuing to search for facts about Iraq's WMD programs," Warner said.

But Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the committee, said 1,750 experts have visited 1,200 potential WMD sites and have come up empty-handed.

"It is important to emphasize that central fact because the administration's case for going to war against Iraq rested on the twin arguments that Saddam Hussein had existing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and that he might give weapons of mass destruction to al Qaeda to attack us -- as al Qaeda had attacked us on 9/11," Levin said.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, asked Duelfer about the future likelihood of finding weapons of mass destruction, to which Duelfer replied, "The chance of finding a significant stockpile is less than 5 percent."

Based in part on interviews with Saddam, the report concludes that the deposed Iraqi president wanted to acquire weapons of mass destruction because he believed they kept the United States from going all the way to Baghdad during the first Gulf War and stopped an Iranian ground offensive during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, senior administration officials said.

U.S. officials said the Duelfer report is "comprehensive," but they are not calling it a "final report" because there are still some loose ends to tie up.

One outstanding issue, an official said, is whether Iraq shipped any stockpiles of weapons outside of the country. Another issue, he said, is mobile biological weapons labs, a matter on which he said "there is still useful work to do."

Duelfer said Wednesday his teams found no evidence of a mobile biological weapons capability.

The U.S. official said he believes Saddam decided to give up his weapons in 1991, but tried to conceal his nuclear and biological programs for as long as possible. Then in 1995, when his son-in-law Hussain Kamal defected with information about the programs, he gave those up, too.

Iraq's nuclear program, which in 1991 was well-advanced, "was decaying" by 2001, the official said, to the point where Iraq was -- if it even could restart the program -- "many years from a bomb."

CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.



leave poor people alone with your lies

 

[PAKISTANFOREVER]

lol your such a Chinese bootlicker you have to peddle your false fantasies .

Report: No WMD stockpiles in Iraq
CIA: Saddam intended to make arms if sanctions ended
Thursday, October 7, 2004 Posted: 1450 GMT (2250 HKT)

​

	Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, testifies Wednesday at a Senate Armed Services committee hearing.​
	​ VIDEO According to a report by the CIA's Charles Duelfer, Saddam Hussein did not have WMD when the war began. PLAY VIDEO Duelfer appears before a Senate committee to testify on Iraq's weapons capabilities. PLAY VIDEO RELATED • Report links U.N. to Iraq bribes • Saddam was fixated on Iran • Blair: Sanctions weren't working • Interactive: The search for WMD SPECIAL REPORT • Interactive: Who's who in Iraq • Interactive: Sectarian divide • Timeline: Bloodiest days for civilians • Coalition Casualties • Special Report YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Iraq or Create your own​ Manage alerts | What is this?​

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and had not begun any program to produce them, a CIA report concludes.

In fact, the long-awaited report, authored by Charles Duelfer, who advises the director of central intelligence on Iraqi weapons, says Iraq's WMD program was essentially destroyed in 1991 and Saddam ended Iraq's nuclear program after the 1991 Gulf War.

The Iraq Survey Group report, released Wednesday, is 1,200 to 1,500 pages long.

The massive report does say, however, that Iraq worked hard to cheat on United Nations-imposed sanctions and retain the capability to resume production of weapons of mass destruction at some time in the future.

"[Saddam] wanted to end sanctions while preserving the capability to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction when sanctions were lifted," a summary of the report says.

Duelfer, testifying at a Senate hearing on the report, said his account attempts to describe Iraq's weapons programs "not in isolation but in the context of the aims and objectives of the regime that created and used them."

"I also have insisted that the report include as much basic data as reasonable and that it be unclassified, since the tragedy that has been Iraq has exacted such a huge cost for so many for so long," Duelfer said.

The report was released nearly two years ago to the day that President Bush strode onto a stage in Cincinnati and told the audience that Saddam Hussein's Iraq "possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons" and "is seeking nuclear weapons."

"The danger is already significant and it only grows worse with time," Bush said in the speech delivered October 7, 2002. "If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today -- and we do -- does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?"

Speaking on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, Bush maintained Wednesday that the war was the right thing to do and that Iraq stood out as a place where terrorists might get weapons of mass destruction.

"There was a risk, a real risk, that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons or materials or information to terrorist networks, and in the world after September the 11th, that was a risk we could not afford to take," Bush said.

But Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, seized on the report as political ammunition against the Bush administration.

"Despite the efforts to focus on Saddam's desires and intentions, the bottom line is Iraq did not have either weapon stockpiles or active production capabilities at the time of the war," Rockefeller said in a press release.

"The report does further document Saddam's attempts to deceive the world and get out from under the sanctions, but the fact remains, the sanctions combined with inspections were working and Saddam was restrained."

But British Prime Minister Tony Blair had just the opposite take on the information in the report, saying it demonstrated the U.N. sanctions were not working and Saddam was "doing his best" to get around them.

He said the report made clear that there was "every intention" on Saddam's part to develop WMD and he "never had any intention of complying with U.N. resolutions."

At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday, panel Chairman John Warner, R-Virginia, called the findings "significant."

"While the ISG has not found stockpiles of WMD, the ISG and other coalition elements have developed a body of fact that shows that Saddam Hussein had, first, the strategic intention to continue to pursue WMD capabilities; two, created ambiguity about his WMD capabilities that he used to extract concessions in the international world of disclosure and discussion and negotiation.

"He used it as a bargaining tactic and as a strategic deterrent against his neighbors and others."

"As we speak, over 1,700 individuals -- military and civilian -- are in Iraq and Qatar, continuing to search for facts about Iraq's WMD programs," Warner said.

But Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the committee, said 1,750 experts have visited 1,200 potential WMD sites and have come up empty-handed.

"It is important to emphasize that central fact because the administration's case for going to war against Iraq rested on the twin arguments that Saddam Hussein had existing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and that he might give weapons of mass destruction to al Qaeda to attack us -- as al Qaeda had attacked us on 9/11," Levin said.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, asked Duelfer about the future likelihood of finding weapons of mass destruction, to which Duelfer replied, "The chance of finding a significant stockpile is less than 5 percent."

Based in part on interviews with Saddam, the report concludes that the deposed Iraqi president wanted to acquire weapons of mass destruction because he believed they kept the United States from going all the way to Baghdad during the first Gulf War and stopped an Iranian ground offensive during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, senior administration officials said.

U.S. officials said the Duelfer report is "comprehensive," but they are not calling it a "final report" because there are still some loose ends to tie up.

One outstanding issue, an official said, is whether Iraq shipped any stockpiles of weapons outside of the country. Another issue, he said, is mobile biological weapons labs, a matter on which he said "there is still useful work to do."

Duelfer said Wednesday his teams found no evidence of a mobile biological weapons capability.

The U.S. official said he believes Saddam decided to give up his weapons in 1991, but tried to conceal his nuclear and biological programs for as long as possible. Then in 1995, when his son-in-law Hussain Kamal defected with information about the programs, he gave those up, too.

Iraq's nuclear program, which in 1991 was well-advanced, "was decaying" by 2001, the official said, to the point where Iraq was -- if it even could restart the program -- "many years from a bomb."

CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.



leave poor people alone with your lies

Funny that the above news ONLY came after the americans had invaded Iraq, destroyed the country and were in the process of mass murdering the Iraqis..........

 

[tower9]

Sure. No actual proof but trust me bro.

 

[CAPRICORN-88]

China still awaits reply from EU representatives after inviting them to Xinjiang: Chinese envoy to Germany
By Global TimesPublished: Feb 19, 2021 11:39 PM Updated: Feb 20, 2021 09:56 AM

Xinjiang Photo: IC

China's Ambassador to Germany Wu Ken said China has invited the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Xinjiang and the two sides are discussing details of the visit, but no replay has been received from the representatives of the EU after it issued invitation for them to visit the region.

China welcomes foreigners to visit Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and learn about the real Xinjiang, given that some anti-China politicians in the West are spreading lies about Xinjiang, Ambassador Wu said in a recent interview with German business magazine Wirtschafts Woche.

No matter what the Chinese government does, some Western media reports are quick to conclude that Beijing is engaged in oppression of Uygur people in Xinjiang, he said.

Wu emphasized that the so-called "forced labor" is a label invented by anti-China forces in the West to smear China, and that there are no so-called "re-education camps" in Xinjiang.

China legally established vocational training centers, which have no difference in essence from the "anti-extremism centers" in France and community correction centers in the US, said Wu, noting these institutions are all beneficial attempts to prevent terrorism and de-radicalize people.

Through education and training, China has eradicated the breeding ground for extremism and helped those who suffer from it secure a better future, Wu said.

"The measures have greatly improved the situation in Xinjiang. There had been no terrorist attacks for four years in 2019, and participants in the courses at the vocational training centers have graduated and found jobs," he said.

Wu added that many critics in the West have never been to Xinjiang's vocational training centers. "Direct communication with local ethnic groups in China will surely lead to conclusions that are different from what these anti-China 'actors' want the international public to believe," Wu said.

Foreigners are welcome to visit and look around Xinjiang to learn the real situation there, said Wu, revealing that more than 1,200 diplomats, journalists and religious figures from more than 100 countries have visited Xinjiang in the past few years.

China has issued an invitation to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and talks about the details of a visit are being held. Representatives from the EU were invited a long time ago, but they have not replied, Wu said.

 

[OIO]

China still awaits reply from EU representatives after inviting them to Xinjiang: Chinese envoy to Germany
By Global TimesPublished: Feb 19, 2021 11:39 PM Updated: Feb 20, 2021 09:56 AM

Xinjiang Photo: IC

China's Ambassador to Germany Wu Ken said China has invited the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Xinjiang and the two sides are discussing details of the visit, but no replay has been received from the representatives of the EU after it issued invitation for them to visit the region.

China welcomes foreigners to visit Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and learn about the real Xinjiang, given that some anti-China politicians in the West are spreading lies about Xinjiang, Ambassador Wu said in a recent interview with German business magazine Wirtschafts Woche.

No matter what the Chinese government does, some Western media reports are quick to conclude that Beijing is engaged in oppression of Uygur people in Xinjiang, he said.

Wu emphasized that the so-called "forced labor" is a label invented by anti-China forces in the West to smear China, and that there are no so-called "re-education camps" in Xinjiang.

China legally established vocational training centers, which have no difference in essence from the "anti-extremism centers" in France and community correction centers in the US, said Wu, noting these institutions are all beneficial attempts to prevent terrorism and de-radicalize people.

Through education and training, China has eradicated the breeding ground for extremism and helped those who suffer from it secure a better future, Wu said.

"The measures have greatly improved the situation in Xinjiang. There had been no terrorist attacks for four years in 2019, and participants in the courses at the vocational training centers have graduated and found jobs," he said.

Wu added that many critics in the West have never been to Xinjiang's vocational training centers. "Direct communication with local ethnic groups in China will surely lead to conclusions that are different from what these anti-China 'actors' want the international public to believe," Wu said.

Foreigners are welcome to visit and look around Xinjiang to learn the real situation there, said Wu, revealing that more than 1,200 diplomats, journalists and religious figures from more than 100 countries have visited Xinjiang in the past few years.

China has issued an invitation to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and talks about the details of a visit are being held. Representatives from the EU were invited a long time ago, but they have not replied, Wu said.

They know the truth, don't need to go to xinjiang, they don't need the real materials they can make fake news at home.

 

[CAPRICORN-88]

 

[beijingwalker]

Uighur girl talks about why Uighur families tend to have many children, she has 2 younger sisters and 1 younger brother. Most Chinese families only have one child, but many Uighur families tend to have 4 or 5 children, cause the parents don't want to feel lonely when they get old.

 

[Vanguard One]

PUBLISHED WED, JAN 13 20219:42 AM EST UPDATED WED, JAN 13 20217:56 PM EST

China is accused of extrajudicially detaining over 1 million Uighur Muslims and other minorities in political re-education camps in the northwestern autonomous region, along with invasive surveillance, restrictions on Uighur culture and the use of forced labor.

Companies that fail to demonstrate adequate due diligence in ensuring their supply chains are free from forced labor will now be subject to fines, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced in the House of Commons.

Dominic Raab, First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs walks in Downing Street on September 3, 2019 in London, England.
Leon Neal | Getty Images News | Getty Images


LONDON — The U.K. has introduced new measures to root out the presence of alleged forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region in British supply chains.

China is accused of extrajudicially detaining over 1 million Uighur Muslims and other minorities in political re-education camps in the northwestern autonomous region, along with invasive surveillance, restrictions on Uighur culture and the use of forced labor.


China staunchly denies the allegations, claiming that the centers are aimed at combating extremism and encouraging the development of vocational skills.

Companies with annual turnover of more than £36 million ($49.2 million) that fail to demonstrate adequate due diligence in ensuring their supply chains are free from forced labor under the Modern Slavery Act, will now be subject to fines, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

“We must make sure that U.K. businesses are not part of the supply chains that lead to the gates of the internment camps in Xinjiang, and to make sure that the products of human rights violations that take place in those camps do not end up on the shelves of supermarkets that we shop in here at home, week in, week out,” Raab said.

The government will also initiate an urgent review into export controls to prevent exports which could aid in human rights abuses, issue new guidance to businesses operating in the region, and extend the Modern Slavery Act to the public sector, barring any company shown to have forced labor ties from public procurement contracts.

‘Truly horrific’
Raab claimed the evidence is now “far reaching” and “paints a truly harrowing picture,” accusing China of operating “internment camps, arbitrary detention, political re-education, forced labor, torture and forced sterilization, all on an industrial scale.”

“It is truly horrific — barbarism we had hoped was lost to another era being practiced today as we speak in one of the leading members of the international community,” he added.

Raab cited first-hand accounts from diplomats and escaped victims, satellite imagery showing factories within internment camps and the destruction of mosques, and third party reports from the UN Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Raab highlighted that China’s refusal to allow access to a U.N. human rights commissioner or other credible outside authority was not reconcilable with these contentions.

“China cannot simply refuse all access to those trusted third-party bodies who could verify the facts, and at the same time maintain a position of credible denial,” he added.

A protester outside the White House urges the United States to take action to stop China’s oppression of the Uighurs, on August 14, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images


Raab’s measures stopped short of sanctioning individual Chinese officials over their involvement in the alleged atrocities, and Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, claimed her counterpart had not gone far enough, likening Raab’s actions to “tinkering around the edges.”

The presence of forced labor in international supply chains has been the target of a number of major governments in recent years. In late 2020, several U.S. companies came under fire for allegedly lobbying to weaken a bipartisan bill banning imports from Xinjiang.

“Some U.S. politicians have concocted disinformation of so-called ‘forced labor’ in order to restrict and oppress relevant parties and enterprises in China as well as contain China’s development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told CNBC in December.

“All ethnic groups in Xinjiang choose their occupations according to their own will and sign ‘labor contracts’ of their own volition in accordance with law on the basis of equality.”

UK clamps down on Xinjiang labor camps, accusing China of ‘torture’ and ‘barbarism’

The U.K. has introduced new measures to root out the presence of alleged forced labor in China's Xinjiang region in British supply chains.

www.cnbc.com