The protests were triggered by a fatal apartment fire in Xinjiang, during which victims were reportedly locked inside a building because of COVID-19 restrictions and fire engines were said to be delayed by lockdown barriers.

In December 2024, the company said it had exited contracts it had in Xinjiang via five of its subsidiaries.

China has denied allegations of forced labor, including in the Xinjiang region. Western governments, human rights organizations, and United Nations experts have raised concerns about forced-labor practices there.

"Xinjiang police and other local authorities are still buying products from DJI. Xinjiang public security departments entered into seven procurement orders with DJI that were worth nearly US$300,000 between 2019 and 2022," the report reads.

Multiple investigations in recent years have also uncovered regime-imposed slave labor, including the exploitation of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region.

One message included an article published in the Los Angeles Times, reading: “China’s Stance on the Xinjiang Issue—There is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in any production activity, including cotton production.

The Party’s treatment of Xinjiang “amounts to cultural genocide,” says Seytoff. In response to the recent breakout of violence, Chinese leader Xi Jinping asked the Politburo to deal with Xinjiang as quickly as possible.

In his report, Zenz pointed to two dominant systems used to target Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

Xinjiang Province is a turbulent region in China. It is home to the Uyghur ethnic group, who are Turkic peoples of the Islamic religion.

The projects have become debt traps for those countries, coupled with the persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, causing backlash against China by Islamic groups in West Asia or the Middle East, Shen said.

China observers have noted that media outlets once vocal on issues like the persecution of Falun Gong and repression in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, have largely gone silent.

In 2019, the Commerce Department added Dahua to a list of companies accused of supporting the CCP’s human rights abuses in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang.

Moolenaar had earlier this month demanded answers from Harvard about its ties to a group known to carry out the CCP's persecution in Xinjiang.

The brake pads were discovered at windfarms run by Goldwind Australia, whose parent company is China's Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co. Goldwind Australia operates several wind farms along Australia's east coast.

Regulations Block Xinjiang Cotton Imports? When Cheap Goods Come at a Human Cost Rights Concerns Loom Over Expected Trump–Xi Talks Why Washington Misread China’s Path: Patterson

It prohibits U.S. imports of goods produced wholly or in part in Xinjiang or produced by certain entities.

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The two laws allow the United States to impose sanctions on foreign individuals and entities involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang and ban imports from Xinjiang unless companies can prove that products were not produced with forced labor.

Memorial Would Document Persecution The proposal calls for inscriptions, artwork, or other educational material describing the CCP’s genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang.

The president would also review the Department of State's Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List—which identifies businesses U.S. officials believe are involved in the persecution of Uyghurs and other minorities in China's far-western Xinjiang

BASF, a German chemicals company that is the world’s largest, is also reportedly decoupling from Xinjiang. But Xinjiang is not the only place where Uyghur slaves are used.

Prosecutors said topics directed by MPS headquarters included U.S. domestic and foreign policy, Hong Kong, the Xinjiang region, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, unrest following George Floyd’s death, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann presented findings from his research on Xinjiang. Drawing on interviews with former camp detainees and refugees, he estimated significant annual disappearances.

Schoolchildren walking below surveillance cameras in Akto, south of Kashgar, in China's western Xinjiang region on June 4, 2019.

Uyghur population in Xinjiang, China.

Both companies have been sanctioned for aiding the Chinese Communist Party's genocide of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region.

“Car companies simply don’t know the extent of their links to forced labor in Xinjiang in their aluminum supply chains,” Human Rights Watch senior researcher Jim Wormington said in a Feb. 1, 2024, statement.

In terms of Xinjiang, a “pro-China” video could include showing minorities’ folk customs or idyllic portrayals of rural life, and an “anti-China” video could show the Uyghurs’s plight in China or calls for boycotting products made in Xinjiang, according

However, footage aired by CCTV showed that several high-ranking officials were absent, including CMC Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia, CMC member and Joint Staff Department chief Liu Zhenli, Central Organization Department head Shi Taifeng, former Xinjiang

It resumed engagement in November 2023 after the United States removed sanctions on the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science for human rights abuses in Xinjiang.