TRANSCRIPT
You could be driving a car in Australia that was made under forced labour.
A new report by Human Rights Watch warns of a link between the global car industry and forced labour in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.
The report, which is titled 'Asleep at the Wheel: Car Companies' Complicity in Forced Labour in China', notes how almost a tenth of the world's aluminium, a key material for car manufacturing, is produced in the Xinjiang region.
This is a region of China where Human Rights Watch says the government is conducting a long-running campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities.
The report claims some car manufacturers have done little to map their supply chains for aluminium parts and identify potential links to Xinjiang, noting consumers should have little confidence they are purchasing and driving vehicles free from links to abuses in the region.
Australia in fact outsources all of its car manufacturing to countries like China, with Asia Director Elaine Pearson saying there are real concerns about forced labour being used in aluminium production.
"And really for any car that is manufactured in China, or has parts from China, it's worth noting that aluminium is a key component in cars. And 10 per cent of the world's aluminium is sourced in Xinjiang. This is a region where we have documented crimes against humanity are being committed, including the use of forced labour. And we are very concerned about the use of forced labour transfers to the smelters where aluminium is being produced and manufactured."
The ruling Communist party is accused of detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region as part of a years-long crackdown the US and politicians in other western countries have labelled a "genocide".
In addition to mass detentions, researchers and campaigners accuse Chinese authorities of waging a campaign of forced labour, coerced sterilisation and the destruction of Uyghur cultural heritage in Xinjiang.
Researchers at Human Rights Watch have now performed an open source investigation, collecting documents from the Chinese Communist Party and car manufacturers, noting the use of labour transfers.
Ms Pearson explains why labour transfers are highly problematic.
"These are government programs whereby Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims are moved from rural to urban areas. Now the Chinese government would say this is a poverty alleviation measure, but the reality is in Xinjiang there's very little opportunity for Uyghurs to say no to participating in these programs. Because if they say no they risk being sent to a political re-education camp."
The political re-education camps are essentially mass detention centres which mostly house Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, which the Chinese government claims provides 'educational' and 'vocational' training.
A selection of 100 thousand documents, called the Xinjiang police files, dates back to 2018 and was passed on by hackers to Dr Adrian Zenz, a US-based scholar and activist, who shared it with international media in 2022.
The files include thousands of photographs of detained people and details a shoot-to-kill policy for people who try to escape, which Dr Zenz said includes a speech by China's minister for public security about China's financial support for the re-education camps.
Adrian Zenz is Director in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and says the Chinese government is using employment policies to separate families and ultimately breakdown Uyghur communities as a way of maintaining control over the Xinjiang region.
"The state has accelerated its so-called labour transfer program by taking non-detained Uyghurs from the countryside and transferring them from their traditional agricultural lifestyles into factories, making them to work in factories in an environment where they can't practice their religion, they're separated from families, and they are under heavy state control. And the state uses that to basically exert full control over Uyghur society and as a means to secure its rule, its long-term rule over the region."
He says the international community has failed to respond adequately to these human rights abuses.
"China has heavily influenced and is controlling significant parts of the United Nations in Geneva. So the international community really hasn't done enough and if you think that the evidence clearly points that there's even a risk of genocide, even if there's just a risk there's a treaty obligation for any country signed on to that convention to prevent genocide. And the convention is there not just to punish the crime of genocide but to prevent it,. They have to act based on risk factors. And I see countries not taking that responsibility seriously."
Ramila Chanisheff is the President of the Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women's Association, which was initially established to assist Uyghur women in Australia interact with the wider Australian community, before the organisation adopted a stronger activist role in 2016 after political camps came into force.
She was born in Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and grew up in Australia after her and her parents left in the late 1970s.
Ms Chanisheff told SBS that the community in Australia are largely cut off from communication with loved ones back home, and says people are terrified to speak out against the atrocities for fear of further repercussions against their family members.
"As for us who do speak out we feel that we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. And if we don't speak out it's going to be crucial for the future of our people. It's not just forced labour we are fighting, we're actually fighting a silent genocide. It's become to a point where people are too scared to speak out and China has just become too strong. And we feel as well that Australia as well has been scared, has been frightened, has been put into a corner to say, 'Look if you want to trade with us, if you want these products, you cannot speak on this matter'."
Ms Chanisheff says the organisation has employed a particular focus on lobbying the Australian government to prevent companies' links to forced labour, and played a significant part in establishing a review by the government into the slave labour bill.
But she says the Australian government has failed in their obligations to the Uyghur people.
"This is something that our government, the Australian government, the rest of the world, has not taken a stand, or to help the Uyghurs be able to have dignity and human rights and be able to live their lives. It's actually in some ways if you're still doing business with China, if you're still complicit in this, we feel that this is complicit. You are complicit in the genocide of the Uyghurs and the rest of the world is doing the same."
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement that the Australian government has consistently voiced its deep concern about human rights violations in Xinjiang, including credible reports of forced labour.
It added that Australia has joined others in the international community in calling on the Chinese government to address these concerns, including through the UN Human Rights Council, General Assembly and International Labour Organisation.
Human Rights Watch are calling on consumers to ask companies to map their supply chain to identify where the aluminium is coming from, as well as ask governments whether they have the steps and laws in place to prohibit the use of forced labour.
Mr Zenz acknowledges it's complicated to trace where the aluminium comes from, which raises bigger questions for countries working with China in the future.
"These alloys, they often use aluminium from a whole range of sources, which is very difficult to trace back. And in most cases like these, the only way to avoid a risk of forced labour is to not source from China at all. But if China wants to continue to be a major player in industries such as the automotive industries, they will simply have to get rid of Uyghur forced labour."
Human Rights Watch reached out to five of the largest car companies globally, including Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors, Tesla and BYD.
Several responded saying it's difficult to map the supply chain, and that they have joint ventures with Chinese companies which mean they don't have control over the suppliers' actions.
Ms Pearson acknowledged that it can be challenging to map supply chains and that companies also fear consequences from the Chinese government if questions are raised about human rights.
But she said the car manufacturers should still be making an effort to map their supply chain, as well as insist suppliers don't use aluminium that's being produced through forced labour.
"Now I think that the reason why this isn't happening is because the Chinese government is so hostile to any company or individual that raises human rights violations. So because of that threat of reprisals that companies face they are actually reluctant to raise these issues. So what we are asking is that the same standards that apply in terms of responsible sourcing anywhere in the world also apply in China. So we're calling on car companies to really insist that those standards be followed."
SBS has contacted the five car companies listed as having potential links to forced labour.
Toyota is so far the only company to respond, saying in a statement attributed to global PR, that the company expects suppliers to "follow [their] lead" and "not infringe upon human rights", highlighting "Toyota's core value of respect for people" in their business conduct.
They added that the report from the Human Rights Watch will be closely reviewed.
Ms Pearson says Human Rights Watch are also raising concerns with governments, including in Brussels, Washington and in Canberra, to encourage stronger laws to ban the use of forced labour.
The Chinese government has now revised regulations in the Xinjiang region to tighten controls over the religious practices of the predominantly Muslim ethnic Uyghurs, establishing a government policy which Human Rights Watch says make places of worship and religious teachings better reflect Han Chinese culture and Chinese Communist Party ideology, and in turn suppress Uyghur culture and ideology.
