fredag 13. juni 2025

Critical Mineral Industries In China’s Far West Using Uyghur Forced Labor: Report

A new report says major Chinese producers of critical minerals are using state-imposed forced labor programs in the Uyghur region to meet rising global demand, putting international brands they export to at risk of complicity in human rights violations.

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.