“If the Government Tells You to Go, You Have to Go”: Uyghur Forced Labor 101
Executive Summary
The White Paper published by the State Council Information Office in July 2021 stated that “rural labor transfers in the Uyghur Region averaged over 2.82 million times yearly from 2017 until 2020, with 61.44% in the south.” In his more recent address in January 2023, Erkin Tuniyaz, the Chairman of the Uyghur Region, reported there were 3.03 million times of transfers of rural laborers in 2022. This indicates that state-imposed labor transfers are continuing at a larger scale. In its work report for 2021, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) administration proudly noted that rural surplus labor placement reached 14.33 million times between 2016 and 2021(Some people may have been transferred more than once.) The Chinese government mobilized all state apparatus, existing or prepared facilities, private and state-owned companies, and the local cadres to systematically transfer such a vast number of workers inside and outside the Uyghur Region. This report briefly outlines key takeaways on Uyghur forced labor, summarizing existing research on the matter.
