Products Made with Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region
This brief, published in May 2023, is designed to explain that vast range of products that are made in the Uyghur Region. The Chinese government has deliberately invested vast resources, time, and energy into increasing mining, farming, processing, and manufacturing capacity in the Uyghur Region.
Uyghur forced labor tainted products are not limited to the most commonly discussed industries (cotton, tomatoes, and polysilicon) but include a vast array of agricultural, raw materials, and manufacturing industries.
Commonalities across industries operating from the Uyghur region include: (i) rapid expansion to occupy a significant share of national and global markets; (ii) incentives and subsidies for corporate relocation; (iii) artificially deflated cost of production due to low coal-based energy costs, lack of environmental regulation, and forced labor.
Investigations of products made in the Uyghur Region nearly invariably result in finding evidence of the use of forced labor.
The most environmentally damaging and energy-consuming industrial processes are concentrated in the extraordinarily repressive environment of the Uyghur Region.