Xinjiang Situation: Report finds 'forced labor' accusation false

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute's report claiming Uygurs in Xinjiang are coerced into labor and relocation has been rebuked by a new study coming out recently. Two Chinese researchers say the Australian report wrongly represented the truth and has also wronged the people it claims to protect.

Is it so-called "forced labor" when it comes to what happens in Xinjiang Ugyur Autonomous Region?

Two scholars, who call the autonomous region home, say following the interviews of some 70 migrant workers from Xinjiang working in China's southern Guangdong province, they hope to report the real rationale behind their decision to move.

Chen Ning, Visiting Research Fellow Inst. for Comm. & Borderland Governance, Jinan University, said "I was in Xinjiang when I found out about the Australian Strategic Policy Institute paper. It couldn't be farther from the reality I'm witnessing."

The two talked and stayed with people who had been singled out by the Australian study.

Based on their findings and convictions, the researchers say the migrant workers moved to Guangdong of their own accord, in search of better life prospects, a positive experience that would go on to encourage more from their families to relocate.

But the experience has been tinged with anxiety from accusations and sanctions from the West.

Chen also said sanctioned companies employing these workers are already suffering. If the company makes no money, the people whom the West claims to be protecting aren't going to fare better. It's contradictory to what the West's moves claim to achieve.

The two experts both say righting these accusations has now become a personal endeavor as is their future work and research to contribute to their compatriots' pursuit of a better life.