Thread by @adrianzenz

My 2nd article on the new witness outlines game-changing new evidence on Uyghur forced labor and forced cotton harvesting.

Zhang, the former policeman, provides groundbreaking evidence on coercive nature and continuation of forced labor in Xinjiang to date.

A thread:

The image below shows two Uyghur cotton pickers surrounded by two supervising plainclothes police officers.

Zhang, the former officer, is on the left, a police colleague is on the right.

This article was published by the Sourcing Journal:
wwd.com/sourcing-journ…

1. Forced Cotton Harvesting
- Zhang supervised highly securitized, forced cotton harvests in Aksu Prefecture from 2018 to early 2020.
- Laborers were transported to fields in convoys escorted by guards.
- To prevent escape, officers confiscated laborers' ID cards at checkpoints.

2. Labor Transfers Enforced Through Detention
- Officials assign work, making labor transfers compulsory.
- Refusal triggers immediate, escalating punishments.
- Persistent refusal results in administrative detention under intentionally harsh conditions.

3. Forced Labor/Harvesting Continues Today
- Internal government chat screenshots provided by Zhang, the police officer, show state-coerced cotton harvesting continued in 2023, contradicting official claims of a fully mechanized harvest.

3. Forced Labor/Harvesting Continues Today
- Following the end of Zero Covid policies, Xinjiang's labor transfers accelerated, reaching a record 3.4 million deployments in 2025.

3. Forced Labor/Harvesting Continues Today
- Coerced out-of-province deployments have surged: in 2024, Kashgar alone relocated 20,000 rural laborers to other provinces—nearly matching Xinjiang's total annual transfers from 2017 to 2019.

Under the current administration, centralized repression campaigns have evolved into decentralized coercion that is deeply embedded in everyday administrative governance.

Here is an archived version of the report in case you run into a paywall: archive.is/IkXjR