Video of Shackled and Blindfolded Men in Xinjiang, China Raises Concerns of Genocide and Forced Labor

A video showing men sitting blindfolded and shackled in rows while waiting at a train station with police overseers has gone viral, raising fresh concerns about genocide and forced labor against the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, China.

According to reports, most of these men will end up as forced laborers in factories, working not only for the Chinese but for North American and European companies like Apple, Amazon, Calvin Klein, H&M, BMW, Cisco, Microsoft, Nike, Lenovo, Sony, Skechers, Volkswagen, and many, many others.

It’s possible that the iPhones many have in their pockets might have been made, in part, by a Uighur man or woman who has been forcibly separated from his or her family and “re-educated” by the Communist Party.

Eric Metaxas, noted Christian author, wrote on Twitter, “Yes pray! And NEVER buy another @NIKE product—and tell everyone you know how Nike uses Uighur slave labor in China. Would Nike have used Jewish slave labor in Germany under Hitler or Black slave labor in our South to increase profits? We must tell the world of this evil.”

A recent report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute detailed how the Chinese Community Party is forcibly using the re-educated Uyghur men and women who have “graduated” from its concentration camps to prop up the output of factories across the country. Several of these factories provide products to the United States.

According to the report, an estimated 80,000 Uyghurs were “transferred out of Xinjiang to work in factories across China between 2017 and 2019.” The actual number could be far higher.

These men and women are forced to work for long hours under police supervision and then are usually required to take Mandarin classes at night. They are not allowed to travel home to see their families on holidays.

Covered earlier by The Daily Citizen, the Chinese Community Party has been committing genocide against the Uyghur people, a minority ethnic group that practices Islam, by removing children from their homes, sterilizing women, forcibly re-educating men and women in concertation camps and numerous other repressive measures aimed at eliminating this cultural and ethnic group.

The Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming to the United Kingdom went on the BBC in order to try and defend the actions of his state in regard to the viral video. He denied any impropriety and attempted to dodge questions.

When asked by host Andrew Marr about the video, he said, “I don’t (know) where you got this videotape. Sometimes you have a transfer of prisoners in any country.”

After being pressed, he said, “The so-called western intelligence keeps making these false accusations against China. People say we have ethnic cleansing, but the population of Xinjiang has doubled in 40 years.”

That’s not the case. In fact, evidence shows that birth rates in the region have plummeted, both for the Uyghurs and the Hans.

As the global community becomes more aware of the atrocities happening in Xinjiang, there have been increasing calls to bring the reports before the United Nations.

Hopefully, the haunting images of the men being led onto the trains in Xinjiang, an action reminiscent of the Nazis loading Jews onto trains across Europe, will encourage international action against China’s dangerously repressive policies.

Photo from Youtube

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