Tech & Genocide - Of the Uyghurs
Genocide of Uyghurs
Since 2014 China is committing an ethnic and religious genocide against the Uyghurs and others Turkic
Muslim minorities in East Turkestan (Xinjiang), using the fight against separatism and extremism as
a pretext. China has reinforced security and asserted a greater control over the region given its
strategic importance in terms of natural resources and its place in the belt and road initiative
connecting the country to Europe. Every aspect of the Uyghurs life has been suppressed; putting more
than one million of them in hundreds of camps where they face indoctrination, forced labor,
separation of children and their families, sterilization, forced abortion, rape, physical and mental
torture including food/sleep deprivation. China has first denied the existence of the camps before
presenting them as training centers where the population can escape poverty and extremism by
learning Chinese or a trade. In propaganda videos they are presented as willing participants having
fun, singing or dancing.
Even outside of camps they are subjected to state surveillance: constant checkpoints, use of
security cameras with facial recognition, mass data collection and monitoring of their activities.
The international communities has not successfully tackled the issue. The United Nation could not
pass a resolution due to China's veto power and the International Criminal Court having no
jurisdiction. China use their economical power, huge development projects across the world to gain,
coerce and suppress voices.
Private companies highly invested in China have actively hidden their involvements in forced
labor. According to a conservative estimate 80,000 Uyghurs are been transferred outside of their
province and forced to work in factories linked to Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Samsung and Huawei among
many others.
Apple as one of the biggest western firm embedded in China is one of the biggest culprit.
Many of the companies in their supply chain make use of forced labor. Apple has never made
significant changes, but instead chosen to deny the issue while paying consulting firms to lobby
against the Uyghurs Forced Labor Prevention Act.
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