Are our smartphones made in forced labor camps in China? You will surely like<

The grenade

Under the colored stalagmites that decorate the ceiling of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, the microphone of the Chinese delegation sends back a Turkish-sounding speech. The man speaking is wearing a wine-colored tie and a slightly outdated badge, like those used to clock in at the factory. After a short presentation, Aierken Tuniyazi insisted on repeating his text in Uighur, the language commonly spoken in the region of which he is vice-governor, Xinjiang. Xinjiang "is a multi-ethnic region, where several religions coexist, which has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times," he said, reading his notes behind small rectangular glasses. Whatever their culture, “its people are united like the seeds of a pomegranate”, a formula coined by Xi Jinping.

In this month of June 2019, as Aierken Tuniyazi seeks to reassure the world about the fate reserved for the Uighur people, a Chinese official from the United Front for Labor inaugurates a night school in the northeast of the country. This establishment located in Laixi, north of Qingdao, in the province of Shandong, is financed by the South Korean conglomerate Taekwang. It is called the pomegranate seed school, in reference to the famous quote from Xi Jinping. The message is aimed in particular at the Uighurs. In this school built far from their homeland, they will study Mandarin, sing the national anthem and receive a patriotic education, much like in the re-education camps in Xinjiang.

These Muslims from China did not choose to be here. They were sent near Qingdao by the Xinjiang government and are not allowed to return home during the holidays. They work in a factory surrounded by watchtowers and inward-facing barbed wire, and live in buildings lined up nearby. Each year, they assemble some 8 million pairs of Nikes for the Taekwang company, a subcontractor for the American comma giant. For 30 years, it has been one of its largest production units. As of January 2020, nearly 600 workers from Xinjiang were employed here according to a survey by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) published on March ¹ , 2020. Most of them are women from Hotan and Kashgar prefectures , seen by Beijing as hotbeds of "religious extremism".

Laixi is just one example. ASPI has identified 27 factories, located in nine Chinese provinces, which employ Uyghurs "under conditions that strongly resemble forced labor". Since 2017, she estimates that 80,000 individuals from this minority have been uprooted to be sent to such facilities. These men and women manufacture products for 83 major brands. The list is as long as the misfortunes of the Uighurs (its entirety is reproduced at the end of the article). It includes Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas, Alstom, Amazon, Apple, BMW, Dell, Fila, Google, H&M, HP, Huawei, Jack & Jones, Lacoste, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, The North Face, Puma, Samsung, Siemens, Sony, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Uniqlo, Victoria's Secret, Volkswagen or Zara.

Thanks to a series of leaked documents published by the international press, it was known that the Uighurs were sent to re-education camps to be indoctrinated if not tortured. They would thus be more than a million to have disappeared. The extent of this repression is such that some experts speak of cultural genocide. From now on, the rest of the world can no longer ignore that certain products it owns were assembled by the Uighurs in these factories. A government report obtained by the Chinese press in 2019 stated that “these employees must receive a thorough ideological education and stay on the job.” And the system is not from last year.

The backfire

Laixi workers are not allowed to return home, but they can send mail. In January 2018, a media outlet in Hotan Province published a collective letter signed by 130 employees. It was not intended for their families but for the prefecture which had taken the decision to send them to the other end of the country. Written in Mandarin, the message thanks these officials for their choice. They were once poor, now they earn a monthly salary of 2,850 yuan (363 euros). These figures, nor the authenticity of the letter, are verifiable. But it is surprising that these uprooted people speak of "the good life that awaits them", far from the dangers of "religious extremism" justly condemned by the authorities.

According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), this policy of moving Uighur workers began "long before the system of re-education camps". Integrated into China from the 18th century, Xinjiang has long enjoyed a certain autonomy, thanks to the remoteness of Beijing. In the 1950s, the communist power began by initiating a policy of settling certain areas rich in hydrocarbons, mineral resources and agricultural land. The Han (the majority ethnic group in China) thus began to monopolize positions of power, where the share of minorities was no more than 28.8% in 1990. In a China in full transition towards the economy of market, the Uighurs then sought to reaffirm their identity. A few have borrowed the voice of terrorism, which has prompted Beijing, in turn, to not only silence all dissent, but also crush minority cultures.

In the 2000s, the regime began to transfer Uighur workers to the four corners of the country, subjecting them to a whole series of discriminations. In 2009, this initiative was hampered by violent clashes between Uighur and Han employees of a factory in Guangdong, which led to an uprising in Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang. From that date, the government held major conferences to provide humanitarian aid to Xinjiang. Funds were thus mobilized and other provinces were asked to hire workers from this relatively poor region, which had the significant strategic advantage of diluting the Uighur culture.

After further violence in 2017, detention camps were set up and the "humanitarian plan" for Xinjiang became a priority in Beijing. In both cases, the Uyghurs are in fact put to work and “re-educated” according to the culture of the Party. That year, Tim Cook visited the factory of one of his subcontractors, O-Film, in Guangzhou. According to a since-deleted press release, the Apple boss praised the company for "its humane approach to employees", who he said could "grow in the company and live happily ever after". O-Film had just received 700 Uighur workers at the end of April.

In total, in 2017, 20,859 workers were sent to other provinces. This figure rose to 28,000 in 2018 and then to 32,000 the following year, so that around 80,000 people would have been subject to these displacements in three years. Some ended up at the Taekwang factory in Laixi, while others were hired by Hao Yuanpeng Clothing, a subcontractor for Adidas and Fila. From the point of view of power, this policy is a success in that it has provided close to a million jobs in 4,400 companies.

On the internet, a February 2019 ad offered “skilled, secure and trustworthy” Uighur laborers to transfer to ten different provinces. Another proposed 1,000 workers, aged 16 to 18, listing some “Xinjiang worker perks” like “semi-military management” and “hard-working.” It was enough according to the announcement to sign the contract to receive this staff, present 24 hours a day on the site in 15 days. “We are committed to international labor standards around the world,” a Nike spokesperson said. According to him, suppliers “are prohibited from using prison or forced labor”. Apple also says it ensures that “everyone is treated with dignity on the production line”, while Volkswagen denies having used suppliers cited by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

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The 83 brands cited by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report are: Abercrombie & Fitch, Acer, Adidas, Alstom, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, BAIC Motor, BMW, Bombardier, Bosch, BYD, Calvin Klein, Candy , Carter's, Cerruti 1881, Changan Automobile, Cisco, CRRC, Dell, Electrolux, Fila, Founder Group, GAC Group (automotive), Gap, Geely Auto, General Motors, Google, Goertek, H&M, Haier, Hart Schaffner Marx, Hisense, Hitachi, HP, HTC, Huawei, iFlyTek, Jack & Jones, Jaguar, Japan Display Inc., LLBean, Lacoste, Land Rover, Lenovo, LG, Li-Ning, Mayor, Meizu, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Mitsumi, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, The North Face, Oculus, Oppo, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, Roewe, SAIC Motor, Samsung, SGMW, Sharp, Siemens, Skechers, Sony, TDK, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Tsinghua Tongfang , Uniqlo, Victoria's Secret, Vivo, Volkswagen, Xiaomi, Zara, Zegna, ZTE.

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