Forced Labor, Coercive Land-Use Transfers, and Forced Assimilation in Xinjiang’s Agricultural Production

Abstract

This report demonstrates that agricultural products from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in China, such as tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, and stevia are tainted by forced labor, coercive transfers of land-use rights from Uyghur peasants to large Chinese agribusinesses, and forced assimilation and political indoctrination of Uyghur laborers in these corporations. The findings implicate major Chinese corporations that together represent over 50% of China’s tomato production and 65% of the world’s production of red pepper pigment. Xinjiang produces about 14-15% of the world’s tomato paste, 10% of its chili peppers, and nearly two-thirds of its paprika oleoresin, a pigment used in food coloring and cosmetics. Xinjiang also produces a growing share of global production of stevia, a popular natural sweetener sold worldwide. Xinjiang operates the world’s largest contemporary system of state-imposed forced labor, with up to 2.5 million Uyghurs and members of other ethnic groups at risk of coerced work. Alongside its campaign of mass internment, the Chinese government is enacting drastic measures to transform the region’s agricultural sector to become increasingly industrialized, vertically integrated, and dominated by Chinese agribusinesses. As part of these policies, the state pressures local Uyghur and other ethnic peasants to surrender the right to farm their land to large commercial operators, then coerces them into wage labor, often in local processing bases run by these agribusinesses. Between 2001 and 2021, land-use transfer shares in Xinjiang grew nearly 50-fold, indicating the staggering scale at which ethnic peasants were rendered landless and then pushed into state-mandated work. This is resulting in profound livelihood changes and tearing apart of organic communities, ensuring that Uyghurs are more easily and thoroughly controlled, surveilled, and assimilated. As this takes place, products made with tomatoes or peppers from the Uyghur region continue to taint global supply chains. Our investigation identified 72 international and 18 Chinese companies with either production in Xinjiang or supply chain links (or a risk of such links) to Xinjiang’s agricultural products: 45 companies with direct links to Xinjiang-based companies, 22 companies with indirect links through intermediary suppliers, 6 companies with a general risk exposure, and 17 companies with production in Xinjiang itself. Xinjiang’s products are directly or indirectly linked to several major multinational corporations including Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Del Monte, PepsiCo, McCormick, Unilever, and L’Oreal. Xinjiang’s agricultural products often enter supply chains through intermediaries in other Asian countries, obfuscating their origin. At least one Xinjiang-based tomato producer has established a shell company with zero employees for the purpose of “protecting” its foreign trade and uses this entity to ship thousands of tons of tomato products to Italy. 

Keywords: peasants, farming, china, xinjiang, uyghurs, forced labor, state-imposed forced labor, tomatoes, peppers, cotton, labor transfer, poverty alleviation, ccp