“The program appears disturbingly reminiscent of coercive vocational training and mass labor transfers imposed by the Chinese authorities in the Uyghur region,” the group’s statement reads. Summarizing Zenz’s report, it referenced “accounts of enforced indoctrination, intrusive surveillance, military-style enforcement, and harsh punishments for those who fail to meet labor transfer quotas.” The legislators urged the Chinese government to “halt these atrocities immediately.”
More than 500,000 Tibetans have been transferred to Chinese training centers since the beginning of 2020, as an existing mass labor initiative expanded in the region. The figure accounts for roughly 15 percent of Tibet’s total population. According to a new Reuters report, published Tuesday, the militaristic recruitment program primarily targets rural farmers who are then trained to support Chinese industries.
Its presence in Tibet, fueled by quotas established by Chinese authorities, marks a significant expansion of a labor program also seen in Xinjiang, an autonomous region in the country’s northwest. In Xinjiang the initiative is linked to internment camps that China officially calls “vocational” facilities, where researchers estimate at least 1 million Uighurs were detained over the past several years. Documents obtained by the Associated Press last year confirmed that those held at the detention centers were subject to ideological instruction and behavioral re-education. The Chinese government claimed to have released detainees from the camps in December, but concerns about subsequent forced labor practices surfaced soon after.
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