All Reading
This section contains a curated list of useful articles, investigations, books and other reading materials. The list is updated on a weekly basis and suggestions for additions are welcome.
Starting Points:
New law to combat forced labor in China sparks enforcement debate
President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a bill to curb forced labor in China that U.S. business groups and trade experts warn will inflict unnecessary pain on U.S. firms and punish legitimately employed Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region. Designed to insulate U.S. companies and consumers from complicity in forced labor practices in Xinjiang, industry groups and trade lawyers say the law's strict compliance standards coupled with problematic enforcement will harm US business interests and Uyghur Muslims.
Intel apologises in China over Xinjiang supplier statement
U.S. chip maker Intel apologised in China on Thursday after its letter telling suppliers not to source products or labour from the Xinjiang region triggered a backlash, making it the latest western firm to be tripped up over rights issues in the country.
Intel apologises to China over supplier advice
US microchip maker Intel has apologised following a backlash over its letter urging suppliers not to source products or labour from China's Xinjiang region. The company's letter sparked criticism in China, with calls for a boycott.
Biden signs Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law
President Biden on Thursday signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill that bans imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless the importer can prove they were not made with forced labor.
Meet the New Uyghurs
China’s propaganda narrative centers on the personal transformations of Uyghurs, removing the cultural and ethnic markers Beijing finds distasteful.
Meet the “New” Uyghurs: CGTN’s Role in Mediawashing Genocide
China’s flagship international broadcaster, China Global Television Network (CGTN), is central to an influence campaign meant to convince a worldwide public that the Uyghurs and the Uyghur Region have been politically cleansed through reeducation, and that the region is now open for state-approved cultural tourism.
Dad tormented after daughters vanish as family flee from ‘concentration camps’
Omer Faruh’s daughters marked their fifth and sixth birthdays this year. Instead of celebrating, he spent the days wondering if they’re still alive. They vanished five years ago as their parents fled Xinjiang in fear of being taken to ‘concentration camps’.
China Cannot Silence Me
Speaking of the crimes committed against my family and other Uyghurs in Xinjiang has sparked a surprising reaction.
UK hints at banning Chinese imports with forced labor links
The U.K. could follow Washington and ban goods imported from the Chinese region of Xinjiang that were made with forced labor, according to a senior British minister. The suggestion came as a string of China-skeptic Conservative MPs lined up to urge the U.K. government to follow suit in a bid to pile pressure on the Asian giant over its treatment of the region's Uyghur Muslim minority.
Amazon silenced criticism of Xi to do business in China: Report
Amazon’s efforts to curry favor with the Chinese government included quieting criticism of President Xi Jinping’s book on its Chinese outlet, according to a Reuters report.
UK hints at banning Chinese imports with forced labor links
Minister Penny Mordaunt tells POLITICO government looking ‘very, very carefully at’ policy on Xinjiang — as prominent Conservative MPs urge Britain to follow Washington’s lead.
Business as usual for European museums operating in China, despite genocide ruling
The Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence all have major partnerships with the Chinese state. Each reacted with apparent indifference or refused to comment on the ruling of an independent London panel which has found “beyond all reasonable doubt” that China is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
2-time Olympic snowboarder calls for Team Canada boycott of Beijing 2022
Drew Neilson spent a good portion of his youth screaming down snowy slopes all over the world in pursuit of podiums. But now a decade into retirement, he says he can’t help but speak out about the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the International Olympic Committee’s willingness to partner with China, calling for a full Canadian boycott of the games. “I’m really disgusted. I don’t want to even be called an Olympian anymore,” he said from his home in North Vancouver. “The IOC recognizes … human rights as enshrined in the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter and the code of ethics, and they say the IOC takes this responsibility very seriously. But do they?”
‘The world must boycott’: Australian Uyghur calls for more pressure on Beijing Games
Almas Nizamidin, whose wife has been sentenced to seven years in prison in Xinjiang, says a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics is not enough. What Almas Nizamidin knows of his wife’s arrest and disappearance is second-hand: the harried reports relayed by his relatives as it rapidly unfolded. She remains incarcerated in Xinjiang Women’s Prison, sentenced to seven years’ jail on “disturbing social order” charges her family says are baseless.
Special Report: Amazon partnered with China propaganda arm
Amazon.com Inc was marketing a collection of President Xi Jinping's speeches and writings on its Chinese website about two years ago, when Beijing delivered an edict, according to two people familiar with the incident.
US Congress passes import ban on Chinese Uyghur region
The US Congress has passed a bill that requires companies to prove that goods imported from China's Xinjiang region were not produced with forced labour. The US has accused China of genocide in its repression of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority there - a charge that China has repeatedly rejected. The bill had been criticised by major companies that do business in the area, including Coca-Cola, Nike and Apple.
The CCP's Willing Influencers Amplify State Propaganda Online
This week, a slew of new reports on China’s online propaganda campaigns was released. As researchers documented, the CCP is increasingly using foreign influencers to disseminate pro-China narratives on Western social media—particularly regarding the crimes against humanity in Xinjiang—in order to increase engagement and defend against foreign critics.
U.S. curbs Chinese drone maker DJI, other firms it accuses of aiding rights abuses
The U.S. government put investment and export restrictions on dozens of Chinese companies on Thursday, including top drone maker DJI, accusing them of complicity in the oppression of China's Uyghur minority or helping the military, further ratcheting up tensions between the world's top two economies.
What is happening in Xinjiang as 2021 draws to a close?
A Q&A with Darren Byler, author of a new book on China’s oppressive policies against Uyghurs and other Muslims in western China. "In general, what we are seeing is a shift from mass internment to coerced labor and mass imprisonment [...] At the same time, those who are deemed more serious risks have either been sentenced to prison terms or are still being held as they await trial."
UN to Release Much-Anticipated Rights Report on China
Last week the spokesperson for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it would be only “a matter of a few weeks” until the release of a much-anticipated report showing “patterns” of Chinese government human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in the Xinjiang region.