A new report by researcher Adrian Zenz revealed that the Chinese government is forcing over 500,000 members of the Uyghur ethnic group to work in the cotton fields of Xinjiang / East Turkestan. Against this background, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demanded the German Federal Government to quickly pass a planned supply chain law – to ensure that textiles made from this cotton will no longer enter the German market.

"Some companies and associations have already taken the only right step months ago – committing themselves not to source any cotton from Xinjiang. The remaining companies in the textile industry should be honest enough to admit that they cannot be sure that they are not profiting from forced labor if they purchase raw materials from Xinjiang," said Hanno Schedler, STP expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. "In Xinjiang, Western companies are not in the position to reliably check the supply chains, because of extensive travel restrictions and monitoring by Chinese authorities. The numerous reports of forced labor, re-education camps, and the destruction of cultural sites of the Uyghur people should have long since prompted companies to withdraw from the region. A comprehensive supply chain law could give them legal certainty here and protect German consumers from unknowingly buying products made with forced labor."

For the report, which was released on December 14, Zenz analyzed Chinese government documents. Twenty percent of the world's cotton currently comes from the Xinjiang / East Turkestan region. In China itself, 85 percent of all textile products are assumed to be made with cotton from Xinjiang.

The Chinese state is promoting forced labor as an effective poverty alleviation measure, while the authorities are supposed to monitor forced laborers in the fields and to ensure their "mental stability". Schedler mentioned that the Federal Government listed China's crimes in its recent human rights report, which was published on December 2. "Now, it can demonstrate its willingness to provide the companies with a legal basis for their actions in China, to keep forced labor out of the supply chains," Schedler said. "The law should also be complemented with some kind of warning system: If the assessment of a region reveals that forced labor cannot be ruled out, and if it is impossible for the companies to verify the allegations, they must stop operating in the region."

In July this year, a global coalition of more than 180 civil society organizations had launched the "End Uyghur Forced Labor" campaign, calling on apparel brands and retail companies to sever all ties with suppliers involved in forced labor within twelve months.