Overview
- UN human rights experts reported a persistent, state-driven pattern of coercive labour targeting Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tibetan minorities across Xinjiang and other regions.
- The experts said government programmes branded as poverty alleviation compel people into assigned jobs, with coercive elements they warn could constitute forcible transfer or enslavement.
- They cited scale indicators including Xinjiang’s 2021–2025 plan projecting 13.75 million labour transfers and an estimate that about 650,000 Tibetans were transferred in 2024.
- The statement also referenced mass relocations affecting Tibetan communities since 2000 and warned that goods produced under coercion may enter global supply chains, urging rigorous corporate due diligence and unfettered UN access.
- China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun dismissed the allegations as completely fabricated, asserting that Beijing protects human rights and criticizing the experts’ impartiality.