The evolution of forced labour in Xinjiang
China has wound down its re-education camps, but is still using work to remould the thinking of Uyghurs
In a village near the ancient Silk Road town of Yarkand, on the edge of the Taklamakan desert in the far-western region of Xinjiang, the gongzuodui has been busy. The term means “work team”. In Xinjiang it refers to a group of officials dispatched to a poor rural area to change the way Muslim residents live and think. In this village, called Konabazar, the team has been engaged in “ideological mobilisation”. The aim is to persuade reluctant farmers to head off and do other forms of work.
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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Beware the work team”
From the June 1st 2024 edition
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