Report charting China’s expansion of the collective action program in Tibet | Tibet

Chinese authorities are greatly expanding the collective action program in Tibet, which analysts have compared to alleged forced labor operations in Xinjiang, according to evidence compiled by a German anthropologist and Supported by Reuters.

China has set quotas to transfer hundreds of thousands of Tibetan rural workers from their lands to “military-style” facilities to be trained as factory workers, according to documents analyzed by researcher Adrian Zenz. For Jamestown Foundation, American Research Institute.

The documents include a notice from the Tibet regional government that said 15% of the population – more than 500,000 people – had undergone the training program in the first seven months of this year, with nearly 50,000 transferred to jobs at home. Tibet Thousands were sent to other areas to work in low-paying jobs such as the textile industry and construction.

The program was introduced to the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2019 and 2020 to promote the training and transfer of “surplus rural labor,” a term also used in the white paper published by Beijing last week. Defend its action programs in Xinjiang. As with the Xinjiang newspaper, the Tibetan program is claimed to be a vehicle for President Xi Jinping’s goal of poverty eradication.

Zenz writes that the labor transfer policy allows rural workers to undergo central “military-style” professional training, which aims to reform “reactionary thinking” and includes training in “work discipline”, law and the Chinese language. Other reports documented by Zenz indicate that the process requires “mitigating the negative impact of the debt,” with the help of a scheme encouraging Tibetans to transfer their land to government-run cooperatives.

Zenz wrote: “While some documents confirm that the scheme is based on voluntary participation, the general evidence indicates the systematic presence of many coercive elements,” including mandatory quotas and instructions to pressure subordinates to achieve goals, and in one area the inclusion of goals in the annual assessment scores of officials The party.

“The similarities with the Xinjiang compulsory training program are abundant: both schemes have the same target group … Great focus is on mobilizing a” conservative “minority group to change their traditional lifestyle; using military training and military-style training administration to produce discipline and obedience; Emphasizing the need to “transform” workers ’thinking and identity, and reform their“ backwardness. ”Teaching law and Chinese; aiming to weaken the perceived negative impact of religion; setting detailed quotas; and exerting great pressure on officials to achieve program goals.

According to Zenz, key policy documents revealed that party officials should adhere to strict quotas or face punishment. He writes that firms that employ fewer local workers and middlemen receive monetary rewards.

In a statement to Reuters, the Chinese Foreign Ministry strongly denied involvement in forced labor, and said China It is a country with the rule of law and the workers were volunteers and were adequately compensated.

“What these ulterior motives call“ forced labor ”simply does not exist. We hope that the international community will distinguish between right and wrong, respect facts, and not be deceived by lies.

Beijing is under increasing international pressure over its treatment of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, including mass re-education detention, as well as surveillance, restrictions on religious and cultural beliefs, and forced sterilization of women. Experts say the practices amount to cultural genocide.

Charges Strongly denied by BeijingWhich claims that its policies are aimed at combating terrorism and alleviating poverty. However, journalists and human rights groups are strictly prohibited from searching the top secret camps.

Zenz is an independent researcher specializing in Xinjiang and Tibet His work includes checking Chinese government documents. His research is a major source of information about work programs in both regions, and has drawn the ire of the Chinese state media.