Adrian Zenz

UN experts alarmed by reports of forced labour of Uyghur, Tibetan and other minorities across China GENEVA – UN experts* today expressed deep concern regarding persistent allegations of forced labour affecting Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz minority groups as well as Tibetans within the Xinjiang Uyghur A...

"Irreparable harm": Critical new statement from UN Special Procedures highlights strategic nexus between land seizure and an alarming increase in forced labor transfers in Xinjiang and Tibet.

Thread:
www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

I am honored to be appointed to the European Commission's Expert Group on Forced Labor, informing guidelines and indicators for the EU Forced Labor Regulation (EUFLR) through expert meetings in Brussels.

2026 will be pivotal for EUFLR implementation. My focus will be on state-imposed forced labor.

Forced Labor, Coercive Land-Use, Transfers, and Forced Assimilation Forced Labor, Coercive Land-Use, Transfers, and Forced Assimilation in Xinjiang's Agricultural Production By Adrian Zenz and I-Lin Lin Open Access Download (December 2024) Abstract This report on f...

The alarming increase in land transfers and their connection to forced labor was recently documented in our recent report on forced labor in Xinjiang's agricultural production: sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

"Labour and land transfers forcibly change their agriculture-based or nomadic traditional livelihoods... Consequently, their language, chosen communities, ways of life... are eroded."

This represents a significant precedent—apparently the first time UN Special Procedures have explicitly articulated the causal mechanism between "land grabbing" (land transfers) and the displacement of targeted rural populations into forced wage labor.

Having contributed to the empirical and conceptual data underpinning this assessment, I can attest to the rigor and accuracy of these findings.

Issued by four UN Special Rapporteurs and the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the statement highlights alarming recent increases in coercive labor volumes in both regions and underscores the resulting contamination of global supply chains.

UN experts alarmed by reports of forced labour of Uyghur, Tibetan and other minorities across China GENEVA – UN experts* today expressed deep concern regarding persistent allegations of forced labour affecting Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz minority groups as well as Tibetans within the Xinjiang Uyghur A...

"Irreparable harm": Critical new statement from UN Special Procedures highlights strategic nexus between land seizure and an alarming increase in forced labor transfers in Xinjiang and Tibet.

Thread:
www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

I am honored to be appointed to the European Commission's Expert Group on Forced Labor, informing guidelines and indicators for the EU Forced Labor Regulation (EUFLR) through expert meetings in Brussels.

2026 will be pivotal for EUFLR implementation. My focus will be on state-imposed forced labor.

New website launched for the International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS) The International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS), led by Dr David Tobin, has launched its website, bringing together researchers from around the world to share critical, policy-relevant wo...

Great to see the International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS) officially launch. I am proud to be part of it.
sheffield.ac.uk/las/news/new...

Major victory: Chinese tomato exports to Italy collapse, following our research report & BBC investigation into tomato-linked Uyghur forced labor and land-grabbing.

Official 2025 customs data confirms the collapse. Over 2/3 of China’s tomato exports are linked to Xinjiang.

Report links below:

Excited to see our 136-page report on Uyghur forced labor in Xinjiang's agricultural production & land grabbing now published with University of Sheffield's International Network for Critical China Studies.

sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

New website launched for the International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS) The International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS), led by Dr David Tobin, has launched its website, bringing together researchers from around the world to share critical, policy-relevant wo...

Great to see the International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS) officially launch. I am proud to be part of it.
sheffield.ac.uk/las/news/new...

FT article link: ft.com/content/deea...

Our original research report: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Major victory: Chinese tomato exports to Italy collapse, following our research report & BBC investigation into tomato-linked Uyghur forced labor and land-grabbing.

Official 2025 customs data confirms the collapse. Over 2/3 of China’s tomato exports are linked to Xinjiang.

Report links below:

Next week we hold our annual China Forum in Washington, DC, with panels on Transnational Repression, Uyghur forced labor, responding to China's global agenda, and the rising challenge of techno-authoritarianism.

Registration link and list of speakers below: 👇

China Forum 2025 China Forum is an annual conference exploring the nature of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party, and key issues in U.S.-China relations.

RSVP at chinaforum.org

Speakers include @congressmanraja.bsky.social @rushdoshi.bsky.social @rushanabbas.bsky.social @joshrogin.bsky.social @edwardlemon.bsky.social @yaqiu.bsky.social etc.

Next week we hold our annual China Forum in Washington, DC, with panels on Transnational Repression, Uyghur forced labor, responding to China's global agenda, and the rising challenge of techno-authoritarianism.

Registration link and list of speakers below: 👇

It was nice to spend time with @davidstroup.bsky.social @jleibold.bsky.social @chusinan.bsky.social

cc @drdavidtobin.bsky.social

At #APSA2025 in Vancouver, I was privileged to present papers on Investigative Policy Analysis, the research methodology I use to uncover Xinjiang's policies, and on the information-coercion nexus in authoritarian repression. The venue featured stunning panoramic views.

Systemic Coercion, Forced Labor, and Land Grabbing in Xinjiang's Agricultural Sector:

Our recent research report provides a detailed analysis of the systemic, state-imposed forced labor present throughout Xinjiang's agricultural sector. THREAD:

Over the next few days I will publish a series of posts that will succinctly present the report's key findings.

Report link: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

This state-led campaign is dismantling traditional livelihoods and engineered the mass dispossession of ethnic agricultural producers, while implicating a vast network of Chinese agribusinesses and their global supply chains.

1. Coercive transfers of land-use rights: Systematically dispossessing ethnic peasants of their primary means of livelihood.

2. Forced labor programs: Transferring the now-landless "rural surplus laborers" into state-controlled agricultural and industrial employment.

The findings demonstrate that the production of key global commodities—including tomatoes, peppers, stevia, and marigolds—is deeply intertwined with a range of severe human rights abuses.

The architecture of this coercive system is predicated on two primary state-driven mechanisms:

Systemic Coercion, Forced Labor, and Land Grabbing in Xinjiang's Agricultural Sector:

Our recent research report provides a detailed analysis of the systemic, state-imposed forced labor present throughout Xinjiang's agricultural sector. THREAD:

And yet, despite the outcry that followed, despite the condemnations and calls for justice, we have seen very little in the way of concrete action.

They included mugshots of thousands of detainees, the youngest just 15, shows faces frozen in fear and confusion - the human cost of a genocidal campaign hidden behind slogans of “stability” and “progress.”

These files laid bare what many of us Uyghurs already knew in our hearts: that our loved ones had been disappeared into a nightmare system of camps and prisons, governed by shoot-to-kill policies, endless interrogations, and a relentless effort to erase our culture, language, and faith.

The Cost of Silence: Reflections Three Years After the Xinjiang Police Files Leak The Files should have generated robust policies against companies profiting from slave labour in the Uyghur region. In the UK, it did not happen.

The Cost of Silence: Reflections Three Years After the Xinjiang Police Files Leak

Powerful op-ed by Rahima Mahmut: "despite the outcry that followed, despite the condemnations and calls for justice, we have seen very little in the way of concrete action"
bitterwinter.org/the-cost-of-...