hundreds of thousands of people from
ethnic minorities including the uyghur
community
are being forced by the chinese
authorities to pick cotton
in the far western region of xinjiang
that's according to information seen by
the bbc
the evidence suggests that china's
cotton crop which
makes up a fifth of the world's total
supply could be far more dependent on
forced labor
than was previously thought now over the
past few years more than a million
uighurs are thought to have been
detained in so-called re-education camps
china denies claims of torture and
carrying out forced sterilizations
and abortions in response to the latest
evidence the chinese government has told
the bbc
that claims of forced labor are entirely
fabricated
our china correspondent john sudworth
has this
special investigation from xinjiang a
region where foreign journalists are
followed very closely
and monitored
xinjiang makes mountains of cotton
a fifth of the world's total
and our investigation will only heighten
concerns about this product
although the evidence wasn't easy to
find and they're waiting for
us we're turned back at checkpoints
stopped from filming questioned
and followed us
this is one site we're trying to get to
a giant re-education
camp but more recently something else
has been built next door
a textile factory days after its
completion
a large group of people can be seen
being moved between the camp and the
factory
wow and this is a factory here it's
extraordinary from the ground
it's clear the factory and accommodation
blocks
are all now one single site plastered
with communist party slogans
but when we get out to film
we are entitled to film in public
anywhere in china
china says these places are simply about
creating jobs
but everywhere we go there's this
extraordinary effort
to stop us documenting any of it
in xinjiang a whole culture is under
suspicion
more than a million uyghurs and other
traditionally muslim minorities are
thought to have been
swept into the camps viewed by
china as potential islamist separatists
that's a chat but each year
more than two million others are being
gathered
for something else giant new factories
and textile mills
hundreds of them where they face strict
controls
and political indoctrination
the first thing our workers have to
learn is to love the communist party
this factory boss says
but now the bbc has seen evidence that
shows uighurs
are also being sent on mass into the
cotton fields
one day my family will disappear from
this war
mamut not his real name left xinjiang
three years ago
but his family still lives there and my
mom told me like
she's picking the carton for the
government officers
it's like our duty to do to do that work
they will just go because they are so
afraid of
being taken to jail or some somewhere
else
newly uncovered documents show the scale
a hundred and fifty thousand pickers
sent to one area
almost as many again organized for
another
they're given ideological education and
the lazy
the authorities say are being taught the
glories of work
the evidence suggests that the real
intention here in xinjiang is the
dismantling
of an entire culture and it's rebuilding
through the total control of people's
families
their faith their thoughts and on a
massive scale across the fields and
factories of this region
in the work that they do in a written
statement the chinese government said
workers from all ethnic groups in
xinjiang choose their jobs according to
free will
and sign contracts in accordance with
the law it said accusations of
forced labor were completely fabricated
but the researcher who unearthed the
documents believes they have
major implications for the global
fashion industry
for the first time we not only have
evidence of weaker forced labor and
manufacturing
um in in in garment making we have
evidence of a massive
state-sponsored forced labor scheme
involving hundreds of thousands over
half a million
of ethnic minorities and it's directly
about the picking of cot in terms of
global supply chains now that's a game
changer
as we leave xinjiang we pass this prison
camp complex
thought to contain multiple factory
buildings
it's the first independent footage of
this truly colossal site
a final chilling reminder that here mass
incarceration
and mass labor are closely connected
john sudworth bbc news xinjiang