CBP cracks down on goods potentially sent from alleged Uighur internment camps
ABC News
In China, 85% of cotton comes from the Xinjiang region, CBP says.
China's message to the international community is that its Xinjiang province is a "wonderful land." But for many who are part of its Turkic Muslim population, the majority of those who live there, it's a nightmare. Up to 3 million Turkic Muslims -- both Uighur and Kazakh -- are, or have been, detained in facilities the Chinese government calls "vocational centers," according to the U.S. State Department. Human rights activists allege that the Chinese government forces the ethnic minorities to work on farms and in textile factories nearby. The country has denied allegations of slave labor or that these are forced internment camps. "There are actually factories that are effectively attached to the political education camps, and so, part of the 'vocational' training to which people are subjected involves working in these factories, most of which are textile factories," Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, told ABC News' Bob Woodruff. The outcry over their alleged torture and mistreatment -- by people whose family members were held there or who themselves stayed there -- has caught the attention of the U.S. government and companies that do business overseas.More Related News