A new paper has revealed fresh evidence detailing the role of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) in implementing the Chinese government's brutal campaign of persecution against the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The report, published by Sheffield Hallam University, details how over the last five years the XPCC, the Chinese government's paramilitary corporate conglomerate, has operationalised systematic programmes of forced migration, forced labour, mass internment, land expropriation, repressive policing and religious persecution against the Uyghurs and other groups.
According to Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), the report finds that the XPCC acts on the orders of senior Chinese Communist Party officials to play a critical and central role in what a growing body of legal opinion considers to be atrocities amounting to Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity in the region.
In a statement published on Wednesday, IPAC called on democratic states to take urgent action to hold the XPCC to account for its abuses, including: trade sanctions against the XPCC and its corporate holdings, including asset freezes and export controls against the 2,873 companies internationally in which the XPCC holds a majority stake, in addition to the sanctions already imposed on the XPCC Public Security Bureau.
The group of global parliamentarians also called for Magnitsky-style sanctions against senior XPCC and Chinese Communist Party officials responsible for repressive policies in the XUAR, including Chen Quanguo, Peng Jiarui and Sun Jinlong.
Furthermore, they asked for reforming modern slavery legislation to ban the import of goods made by the XPCC and other entities responsible for forced labour in the XUAR.
This latest report comes as rights groups continue to highlight the Chinese government's crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the northwest region of Xinjiang.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Chinese leadership is responsible for widespread and systematic policies of mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution, among other offences.
The New York-based group says that coordinated international action is needed to sanction those responsible, advance accountability, and press the Chinese government to reverse course.
"The Chinese government's oppression of Turkic Muslims is not a new phenomenon, but in recent years it has reached unprecedented levels. In addition to mass detention and pervasive restrictions on practicing Islam, there is increasing evidence of forced labour, broad surveillance, and unlawful separation of children from their families," HRW said.
Several rights groups have argued that concerned governments should impose coordinated visa bans, travel bans, and targeted individual sanctions on authorities responsible for criminal acts.
( With inputs from ANI )
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