What is the phenomenon of "Uyghur forced labor"?

A March 29 issue of the Tiananmen Square website reported that "SMEs in Xinjiang can apply for a maximum of 50,000 yuan in innovation service tickets." While the 50,000 yuan in the news may not be the most noteworthy issue, many may not have thought that the aid being provided to SMEs was related to Uyghur forced labor and the Uyghur genocide.

In 2013, there were more than 60,000 small and medium-sized enterprises in the Uyghur region, up from 330,000 in 2019. By 2021, it will reach 446,000. With the 50,000 yuan subsidy mentioned in the Tiananmen Square network, the financial assistance to more than 446,000 enterprises would be more than 22 billion. It is surprising that the Chinese government is willing to provide so much at the same time, despite the large number of SMEs.

So what exactly are SMEs? Why does the government give such companies special privileges?

In fact, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) differ in size, funding, and number of employees, but in the Uyghur region, these enterprises have certain differences from similar enterprises in the Chinese provinces.

In 2016, the Chinese government announced the "Made in China Xinjiang Action Plan," which calls for 19 provinces and municipalities in the coastal areas of China to be divided into 12 provinces and cities in the Uyghur Autonomous Region at the "Second Xinjiang Working Conference 2014". He moved to his hometown and got a job. Many companies have even set up subsidiaries in the Uyghur diaspora to form a production and supply chain that is chained to inland enterprises.

The Made in China Xinjiang Action Plan clearly states that “leading, large enterprises will guide SMEs, micro-enterprises, guide the implementation of the plan, strengthen cooperation and support in industrial production, enhance the innovation capacity of the manufacturing industry, and create new advantages in the manufacturing sector. »Emphasized. In addition, the national strategy of establishing the Uyghur region as a "core region" in the "Silk Road Economic Belt" stipulates that China must build a "new path" for its expansion to the west.

Indeed, in recent years, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have played a key role in the sudden increase in the number of Uyghur farmers who have become "surplus laborers", displaced from their homes, left the agricultural sector and become "workers". According to the minutes of the 10th Xinjiang Press Conference of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region held in Beijing (released on June 3, 2021), by 2020, 179,500 jobs will be provided to SMEs in the Uyghur Autonomous Region and The number of jobs in the region is 90 percent, he said.

The so-called "One Belt One Road Strategy" played a key role in the "economic belt" that connects the Uyghur region with the West and the East in the so-called "One Belt One Road Strategy" after the Chinese government gave special privileges to such enterprises. A good example of this is Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the American Memorial for the Victims of Communism in the United States and an influential researcher on the Chinese genocide against the Uyghurs, released by the Nankai Report in early 2021. The Nankai Report states:

“The relocation of surplus labor in Hotan prefecture is mainly done in the following three ways. 1. Directly organized by government agencies to export surplus labor to the north of the Uyghur diaspora or to the Chinese provinces; 2. Exported or exported after training in labor service companies and training courses organized by the government; 3. With the help of the government, more small and medium enterprises will be set up locally to accommodate the local labor force.

Relocation in Hotan prefecture is relatively systematic, with the government specifically relocating the labor force by purchasing certain jobs and issuing preferential policies. In direct contact with inland enterprises, train workers as needed, in groups of up to fifty or one hundred workers at a time, and send them collectively to inland factories, together with specialized security guards, managers and translators. The children of the workers, in addition to setting up "boarding schools", "boarding schools", "nursing homes" for the placement of their elderly parents, as well as the transfer of land to the farmers through the "Farmers' Professional Cooperative" and the care of their livestock. ».

This means that the so-called "medium, small and micro enterprises" are closely linked to the production lines transferred from the 19 provinces and cities in China's coastal areas to the Uyghur region and the Uyghurs who have been converted into cheap or free labor on this line. In particular, the enslavement of Uyghurs, the displacement of their lands, the displacement of their children, the displacement of Uyghur children from their parents, the neglect of elderly parents, and the destruction of millions of Uyghur families are all in the name of "helping Xinjiang" linking Chinese provinces and Uyghur lands. The establishment is directly related to these enterprises.

*** The views expressed in this article are those of the author. Can't represent the position of our radio.