Marisol is a college student double majoring in Philosophy and Economics. She is very interested in studying the economy, but her passion for philosophy has led her to consider how businesses can act in a more ethical way. Marisol believes raising awareness about unethical labor practices can encourage the field of economics to value individual lives more.
Recent media attention highlighting China’s abuse of the Muslim Uighur population has drawn attention to the nation’s modern-day slavery practices. This issue also offers the opportunity to explore how other forms of forced labor and human trafficking. Now, recent reports of the atrocities of forced labor camps and extensive human trafficking. The U.S. State Department’s yearly Trafficking in Persons report, which ranks countries according to their attempts to meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s Minimum Standards for the Elimination of Trafficking in Persons, placed China in Tier 3. This is the lowest possible rank, meaning China has failed to comply or even show effort to comply with these minimum standards. Continue reading to open your eyes to the various different practices of forced labor and trafficking in China like internment camps, bride trafficking, and organ harvesting.
Muslim Labor Camps:
China’s Muslim minorities, including the Uyghur population and Kazakhs, are kept in internment camps. Nearly 1.8 million people are held in indoctrination camps, prison camps, and labor camps. They are forced to renounce their religion, cut off from their relatives, made to work in factories, and physically abused. The Chinese government defends its actions by arguing that it is counterterrorism. The government claims that the workers are volunteers. The Xinjiang region, where these camps are located, is estimated to grow 85% of the nation’s cotton. Laborers work to produce textiles and clothing for companies including Muji and Walmart and Kmart suppliers. The Chinese government uses footage of these workers as propaganda, attesting that they have given up radical Islam in favor of honest work. In reality, they are sent to factories and coerced to work for low wages. One person reported earning just $95 a month.
Bride Trafficking:
China’s long-standing one-child policy resulted in a higher demographic of men who now encounter trouble finding wives. In response to this problem, a cruel industry of bride trafficking is prevalent. Women from neighboring countries such as Myanmar are attracted by false job offers and taken to China. There, they are sold for thousands of dollars. These women are unfamiliar with Chinese language and culture, and sometimes do not know the details of the man they are to marry. This issue is not widely known among the Chinese public.
Child Labor:
In rural areas, the quality of education is often low enough that children and teenagers often drop out of school to work in factories, fields, or workshops. Amid the current COVID-19 crisis, the closing of schools and economic downturn will likely result in more children being put to work. Sometimes these grueling jobs are called “internships” in order to hide their reality. Companies benefit from the low wages they can pay children and evade criticism due to the difficulty of tracing their goods back to child labor. Many rural abandoned children are sent to acrobat schools, where they spend their days training for performances and risk serious injury.
Organ Harvesting:
China had a system of extracting organs from executed prisoners until 2012, when it began phasing out this program. Still, there is evidence that China may be still conducting organ harvesting from Uighur Muslims or members of the Falun Gong religious movement held in internment camps. A lack of sufficient donated organs in a country with such a high population could prompt China to institute these practices. Sometimes, the doctors performing these extractions are forced to operate.
Featured image: Felipe Dupouy/Getty Images
