Thread by @ReasonablyRagin

NEW REPORT by @lauratmurphy, @nyrola, and myself uncovers massive networks of forced labour and transfers of Uyghur people managed by the Bingtuan and commanded by the central party-state. An explainer 🧵

#Uyghurs #Xinjiang #China

shu.ac.uk/helena-kennedy…

1.

What is the Bingtuan?

The Bingtuan (#Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps) is a state-run corporation, functioning as regional government, paramilitary organisation, prisons bureau, media empire, education system, and one of world’s largest state-run corporations.

2.

Established in the 1950s by former PLA and GMD soldiers, the Bingtuan describes itself as representing China’s ancient “settling the frontier culture” (屯垦文化) with “plough in one hand, gun in the other”

See: doi.org/10.1080/014198…

3.

The “frontier” meaning the homeland of Uyghurs and Kazakhs in the region known as #Xinjiang. They have always described its land seizures and production methods as colonialism.

blog.westminster.ac.uk/contemporarych…

4.

The Bingtuan is organised into military divisions. We focus on the 3rd Division of Tumshuq, which runs prisons and camps, as a case study exemplifying increased government funding for forced labour.

rfa.org/english/news/u…

5.

Who runs the Bingtuan?

China’s party-state considers it a “special system of integration of government, military and enterprise,” holding ¼ of region’s arable land, running its own prisons & courts, and helping settle Han in the region.

jstor.org/stable/2667477

6.

In the 1950s, China’s leaders even worried the Bingtuan’s leaders would create a separate breakaway Han state in the region.

journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/21…

7.

Since coming to power, Xi Jinping has been clear that the Bingtuan’s mission reflects 2,000 years of China’s unbroken settler culture but is under direct command of the central party-state.

sheffield.ac.uk/seas/news/xinj…

8.

Our report shows how the Bingtuan plays a crucial role in maintaining the party’s authority and in targeting Uyghur identities as security threats though land expropriation, forcible migration, pre-emptive policing, religious persecution, and forced labour.

9.

What does this have to do with the outside world?

Bingtuan runs 862,000 entities globally w/ 50%+ stake in 2,873 companies. Many holdings in agriculture & construction but also energy, mining, chemicals, oil & gas, logistics, electronics, wine, food, insurance, and tourism.

10.

The Bingtuan produces around 8% of the world’s cotton and 1/3 of the world’s tomatoes used in paste. Its products and services reach global markets and operate construction projects across the world.

11.

You are likely wearing clothes and eating tomato sauce made by people who have been taken from their homes by officials and forced to work in factories.

12.

What is the Bingtuan trying to achieve?

All its enterprises and investment projects are expected to engage in the government’s programs to “transform” Uyghur people by “transfering” and coercing them into labour-intensive work.

13.

The Bingtuan’s labour transfers differ from those elsewhere in China in terms of the population proportion population targeted and the racialisation of that targeting, with the goal of transforming ethnic identities towards China's "great revival".

14.

What is being done?

The US government sanctioned the Bingtuan and banned imports. Other countries have sanctioned Bingtuan officials. The Bingtuan and it's subsidiaries are branches of the party-state, not private businesses, and should be treated accordingly.

Thank you to @BethanyAllenEbr and @axios for their reporting on this research and this important story.

axios.com/2022/07/26/uyg…