China is now firing back at German academic Adrian Zenz, whose research has exposed the vile human rights abuses that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to enforce against Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
The Foreign Ministry of China has spoken up about Zenz's reports that has exposed "slavery, indoctrination, and family separations," saying that it had caused "significant financial damage" to the Xinjiang economy, as per Breitbart. As a communist state, China's businesses have direct ties to the government, implying that the expose on their human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups have in fact affected Beijing's economy.
The intelligence brief in question is the German academic's work published with the Center for Global Policy, which was titled "Coercive Labor in Xinjiang: Labor Transfer and the Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities to Pick Cotton," released in December 2020. In it, Zenz reveals how China developed "poverty alleviation" apps for mobile phones to assist companies in staffing their manufacturing centers with Uyghur slaves.
The intelligence brief also revealed how about 500,000 people are currently working as slaves in China's cotton-picking industry, and how advanced technology was being used to transfer these slaves from government custody and place them in the hands of government-approved businesses for labor.
In 2019, the German academic accused China of denying the existence of its concentration camps despite evidence of "re-education facilities" in Xinjiang. He wrote, "Government claims that Xinjiang has no 'concentration camps' are both semantically and technically false, and contradicted by the state's own terminology."
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Department Deputy Director Zhao Lijian admitted that Zenz's name was often came up during meetings with the government and that the German academic was "hiding behind the banner of academic research [to spread] anti-China rumors, with Xinjiang as his particular obsession."
Zhao said that the German academic's reports on CCP's abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang had "zero credibility and academic integrity" and was part of "political manipulation by forces with ulterior motives."
He admitted that following Zenz's expose on CCP's abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, businesses in the region "suffered heavy losses." Zenz's report highlighted communist China's forced labor, forced sterilization, eradication of ethnic minorities' culture, and genocide, all of which Zhao denied, saying it was merely "frivolous and preposterous farces aimed to discredit and smear China."
U.S. non-profit Freedom House Research Director for China, Sarah Cook believes that the lawsuits filed against the German academic for his reports on CCP's abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang may "set a worrisome precedent," Reuters reported. Cook explained that this string of lawsuits "could send a signal to foreign companies or others who might be considering being more outspoken or changing business practices due to what is happening in Xinjiang."
For Zenz, however, he believes that his report on CCP's abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang has made an impact. He said, "That's probably the most direct statement that some of these companies are incurring economic losses as the result of my publication."
