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The cotton industry in Xinjiang is the leading producer of cotton in China, accounting for about one-fifth of the world's cotton production and four-fifths of China's domestic cotton production. Several critics of the industry's practices have noted widespread human rights abuses in the industry, prompting global boycotts.

History

The cotton industry has a long history in Xinjiang, with cotton having been grown in the region since the 1st millennium AD.

At the turn of the 20th century, Xinjiang was a producer of raw goods, including cotton. Turfan was Xinjiang's biggest producer of cotton, with 60% of its cotton exported to Russia, and around 45% of the Kashgar's exports (1.35 million roubles out of 3 million total exports) to Russia in 1902 were of cotton cloth. The Russian Revolution coincided with a decrease in cotton exports from Xinjiang to Russia, significantly harming the cotton industry and the local economy as a whole. Throughout the lattermost portions of the 20th century, the government of China sought to turn Xinjiang into a regional cotton-producing powerhouse, with cotton harvests increasing between 1977 and 1997 by a factor of 27 to grow to a total yield of 1.5 million tons. Xinjiang had become the largest cotton-producing province in China during the 1990s and produced over one-quarter of all of China's domestically grown cotton by 2001. During the 1990s, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps began to contribute significantly to Xinjiang's economy, being responsible for 40% of the region's cotton production in 1997.

In 2003 China began prioritizing extra-long staple (ELS) cotton over upland cotton, due to ELS cotton’s climactic preferences this shifted the Chinese cotton industry from the Yangtze River Region and Huang He Region to Xinjiang.

In 2019, Xinjiang was responsible for 84% of China’s cotton production. Most of the cotton grown in Xinjiang is high quality extra-long staple length cotton. Annual production is approximately 5 million tonnes. Due to trade tensions and allegations of forced labor pressure has been placed on cotton growers and suppliers with small firms being the hardest hit. Xinjiang accounts for a fifth of the world's cotton production.

Forced labor

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There have been allegations of the use of forced labor in the production of cotton in Xinjiang.

Reactions

Reactions by business groups

In March 2020, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) suspended licensing and assurance activities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China due to "persistent allegations" of forced labor in the region. In October 2020, BCI ceased all field-level activities in Xinjiang, citing "sustained allegations of forced labour and other human rights abuses" in the region leading to "an increasingly untenable operating environment". On March 26, 2021, the BCI Shanghai representative office said it found no evidence of forced labor in Xinjiang. The office stated that since 2012, the Xinjiang project site has performed second-party credibility audits and third-party verifications over the years, to reach their findings. BCI subsequently removed its October 2020 statement from its website regarding the ceasing of field-level activities in Xinjiang.

After the United States issued restrictions on the imports of cotton in Xinjiang in September 2020, global businesses began to decrease their use of cotton produced in Xinjiang.

Reactions by country

China

Chinese state media has called the reporting on forced labor in Xinjiang "baseless" and argued that any sort of boycott or sanction would harm cotton workers in Xinjiang. A commentary published by the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency said that BCI was part of a "western smear campaign".

Decisions by various Western companies to stop buying Xinjiang cotton have led more than 40 celebrities from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, including Eddie Peng, Eason Chan, Uyghur actress Dilraba Dilmurat, Huang Xuan, Victoria Song, and Zhou Dongyu, to sever ties with those companies. In March 2021, Chinese consumers began boycotting companies which had vowed not to use cotton from Xinjiang. Chinese consumers criticized H&M, which in September 2020 announced it would stop using a Chinese manufacturer accused of using forced labor, citing the BCI's decision to stop licensing Xinjiang cotton. People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, named New Balance, Burberry and all BCI members in online posts, calling for Chinese consumers to boycott these brands. Amid the boycotts, Chinese sportswear company Anta Sports announced it was exiting the BCI, citing their statement on Xinjiang as "seriously concerning".

United States

In July 2020, the United States passed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which instituted tracking and reporting requirements regarding China's abuses against Turkic Muslims and called for sanctions on individuals and organizations involved in the persecution thereof.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "he US Department of Homeland Security detained shipments at United States ports of entry containing cotton and cotton products originating from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps based on credible information that these products were made using forced labor." In September 2020, the United States began to restrict the imports of cotton from Xinjiang. In January 2021, the United States banned the import of cotton produced in Xinjiang in a move aimed at pressuring the Chinese Government to end the Uyghur genocide.

The United States-based Uyghur Human Rights Project has described Xinjiang as a "cotton gulag".

See also

• China Cotton Association

References

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• Cotton production
• Industry in China
• Xinjiang