According to the report by Hague-based rights group Global Rights Compliance, 77 companies and downstream manufacturers of critical minerals-based products operate in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), placing them at risk of participation in the labor transfer programs in the lithium, titanium, beryllium, and magnesium industries.
The findings are likely to add to the due diligence concerns of foreign and multinational companies that source those products. Forced labor is on a long list of serious human rights problems that have been documented in Xinjiang, where the U.S. government determined in 2021 that China was committing genocide against the Uyghurs.