Tag: Uighurs (Chinese Ethnic Group)

Your Monday Briefing: Ukraine Gains Ground

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Nuclear: Ukraine has begun shutting down the Zaporizhzhia power plant, a safety measure as fighting continues around the facility. China: Russia said a senior Chinese official offered Beijing’s most robust endorsement yet of the invasion. China’s lockdowns hit Xinjiang Yining, a city in the Xinjiang region of western China, is under a grueling, weekslong pandemic lockdown. Residents say they face a lack of food and medicine, as well as a drastic shortage of sanitary pads for women. Many of Yining’s 600,000 residents are relying mostly on neighborhood officials to deliver…

For Uyghurs, U.N. Report on China’s Abuses Is Long-Awaited Vindication

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HONG KONG — At first China said there was “no such thing” as re-education centers that held vast numbers of people in its far western Xinjiang region. Then, as more reports emerged that hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and members of other largely Muslim groups were being detained, Beijing acknowledged the camps’ existence but described them as vocational training centers. When overseas Uyghurs spoke out about the authorities’ abuses in Xinjiang, China targeted their families back home, sentencing their relatives to long prison terms and using the full weight of…

Global Brands Seek Clarity on Xinjiang

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Ms. Apter said that while no Eileen Fisher garments were being made in Xinjiang and that it wasn’t getting fabric or yarn from the region, the company didn’t know whether any of the cotton fiber it was using could be traced to Xinjiang. “Two years of pandemic and a deteriorating political situation made it impossible to fully vet what is happening on the ground,” Ms. Apter said. The Latest on China: Key Things to Know Card 1 of 4 Discontent among the population. The Chinese government’s censorship and surveillance, which…

Your Monday Briefing: A ‘Toothless’ Trip to Xinjiang

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Good morning. We’re covering the U.N. human rights chief’s trip to China, India’s expanded protections for sex workers and Ukraine’s offensive in Kherson. U.N.’s tempered criticism of China The United Nations’ top human rights official spent six days in China, offering only limited criticism of China’s crackdown on predominantly Muslim minorities. Michelle Bachelet said that her visit “was not an investigation,” and that she had raised questions about China’s application of “counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures” when she spoke by video with Xi Jinping, China’s leader. In so doing, Bachelet couched…

China Spins U.N. Human Rights Chief’s Visit as Propaganda

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The news was given prime placement in Chinese state media: The United Nations’ human rights chief, on her long-awaited visit to the country, had spoken with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. An article plastered across the website of Xinhua, the state news agency, relayed Mr. Xi’s declaration that the Chinese people were enjoying “unprecedented” rights. Then the article quoted the U.N. official, Michelle Bachelet. “I admire China’s efforts and achievements in eradicating poverty, protecting human rights and realizing economic and social development,” she said, according to Xinhua. But within hours, Ms.…

U.N. Human Rights Chief to Make First Trip to China Since 2005

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GENEVA — Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations’ top human rights official, will next week visit China, including its troubled western region of Xinjiang, on a trip that rights activists say holds significant risks for the credibility of her office. The trip by Ms. Bachelet will be the first official visit to China by a U.N. high commissioner for human rights since 2005, after years of discussions with Beijing to arrange it. But only sketchy details have emerged about what she will do and hopes to achieve in China, which has…

Supply Chains Tainted by Forced Labor in China, Panel Told

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WASHINGTON — Human rights activists, labor leaders and others urged the Biden administration on Friday to put its weight behind a coming ban on products made with forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China, saying slavery and coercion taint company supply chains that run through the region and China more broadly. The law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, was signed by President Biden in December and is set to go into effect in June. It bans all goods made in Xinjiang or with ties to certain entities or…

U.S. Effort to Combat Forced Labor Targets Corporate China Ties

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A far-reaching bill aimed at barring products made with forced labor in China became law after President Biden signed the bill on Thursday. But the next four months — during which the Biden administration will convene hearings to investigate how pervasive forced labor is and what to do about it — will be crucial in determining how far the legislation goes in altering the behavior of companies that source products from China. While it is against U.S. law to knowingly import goods made with slave labor, the Uyghur Forced Labor…

U.S. Cracks Down on Firms Said to Aid China’s Repression of Minorities

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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said on Thursday that it would put limits on doing business with a group of Chinese companies and institutions it says are involved in misusing biotechnology to surveil and repress Muslim minorities in China and advancing Beijing’s military programs. In announcing one set of the moves, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said China was employing biotechnology and medical innovation “to pursue control over its people and its repression of members of ethnic and religious minority groups.” The administration said those efforts included the use of biometric…