Persecution and Cotton

“For the first time since the heyday of the antebellum South, cotton slavery is once again polluting the local economy on an industrial scale,” said Nury Turkel. Born into a “re-education camp,” Turkel, a Uyghur, witnessed first-hand the brutal persecution of his people by the Chinese government. 

The Uyghurs are a Turkic group that settled in what is now the north-central region of Mongolia. The first accounts date back to the 3rd century A.D. Historically, they were a sedentary village-dwelling people who lived in a network of oases formed in the valleys and lower slopes of the mountains and Orhon River. The cities of Urumqi, Xinjiang, and Kashgar are located on the historic Silk Road bordering Russia and China, making this area rich in trade. The land is also rich in natural resources and minerals, providing the perfect climate for cotton cultivation. This ancestral land is now known as the province of Xinxiang, China.

Recently, the Chinese government has increased its persecution against populations it deems “not Chinese enough.” Many groups have become targets, including the Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Hui Muslims, and of course, the Uyghurs. China unveiled its social credit system for all Chinese citizens a few years ago, which monitors the coming and going of people using closed-circuit cameras, and the monitoring of phone apps and purchases. This information is then used to create a social-credit score- a system of ranking each person of their “citizen worthiness.” Unlike a U.S. credit score used to rate credit-worthiness, this social credit score affects where you live, what jobs you can obtain, and where your children can attend school. Those who appear not to hold the government’s values are placed on the government watch list or even worse.

To infiltrate the Uyghurs in Xinxiang, Chinese spies are sent to live with families in the “Becoming Family” program. They report anything they hear or see that is contrary to the government’s prescribed ideals. Anything “suspicious” is reported, from food and alcohol consumption to littering. Because of these reports, parents are sent to “re-education camps” and their children to Chinese Mandarin boarding schools for government indoctrination. 

Using Silicon Valley-level AI, the government seeks to create a totalitarian state. With the use of high-tech military camps which employ listening devices in homes, surveillance cameras, and checkpoints, no one is safe in Xinxiang province. In recent years, the world has watched as the Chinese government has imprisoned approximately 3 million Uyghurs in “re-education camps.” These camps are reminiscent of the concentration camps of World War II, where the appalling treatment of prisoners has been reported. The government themselves have supplied images of such camps showing Uyghur men in blue coveralls sitting in the yard with barbed wire fences and armed guards about. Those released have recounted their horrific stories of beatings, torture, rape, waterboarding, and even abortions and sterilization. Forced labor is a hallmark of the “re-education camp,” and its exports bring in billions of dollars to the Chinese government each year.

As mentioned, the province of Xinxiang is rich in mineral and agricultural resources, producing about 20% of the world’s cotton supply. This cotton is used to maintain factory contracts with American companies, including Adidas, H&M, and Uniqlo. To keep the “cotton flowing,” the government enacted “work placements”- essentially forced labor- upon the Uyghurs. 

https://www.persecution.org/2023/01/10/persecution-and-cotton/