Introduction

This timeline shows the steps Chinese authorities took to present the internment camp system as ‘vocational training centres’. Under international pressure, state spokespersons have announced the camps as “closed” but in fact, the detainees have either been transferred into long-term prisons or have become forced labourers.

• 2003
  To alleviate rural poverty and unemployment, local CCP officials in Xinjiang create programs that transfer rural Uyghurs to perform agricultural work throughout the province or in factories throughout Eastern China. The authorities offer “cash incentives” and rely on coercion to recruit participants.
• June 2006
  CCP authorities launch a policy that targets young and unmarried Uyghur women for labour transfer. The policy aims to relocate approximately 400,000 women to positions in Eastern China. Those transferred to these jobs report inconsistent wages, cultural discrimination, and restriction of movement, and some attempt to return home.
• 2010
  Labour policies that began relocating Uyghurs in 2003 continue. By 2010, one county in Kashgar prefecture has witnessed approximately 21 percent of its population transferred to positions away from their villages. Other counties throughout the province see a similar percentage of their populations relocated.
• April 2010 – August 2016
  Zhang Chunxian becomes Party Secretary of Xinjiang and adopts an approach that combines employment and economic policies with a concerted effort to combat terrorism and violence. Zhang holds the position until 2016.
• 2014
  In a report published by the Xinhua News Agency, 2014 marks the beginning of increased Xinjiang government efforts to satisfy the growing demands of the cotton industry by transferring surplus labourers throughout the province. Over the course of five years, the article claims, authorities have dispatched over 350,000 cadres to rural communities to oversee this kind of “poverty alleviation” (群众脱贫) work
• January 2017
  The Human Resources and Social Security Department of Xinjiang announce a Three Year Plan for the transfer of 100,000 workers to jobs throughout Eastern China. In the same year, 1,259,000 people received vocational training in preparation for the policy. Moreover, approximately 40,000 jobs will also be transferred throughout southern Xinjiang.
• April 2017
  Development of internment camp network in Xinjiang begins. Approximately 1.8 million people are believed to have been held in the vast network of camps.
• August 2018
  Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) Officials deny the existence of internment camps, or alternatively justify them as poverty alleviation and stability maintenance efforts.
• October 2018
  Beijing recasts the internment camps as a form of “aid and education.”
• December 2018–Late 2019
  Under increasing international pressure, authorities begin “releasing“ select prisoners into house arrest.
• July 2019
  XUAR officials announce that its vocational and educational centres are “closed“ and the “re-education trainees” have graduated.
• End of 2018–2019
  To fend off international condemnation, Chinese authorities transfer camp detainees to prisons after handing them long sentences.
• From 2017–2019
  Muslim minorities are transferred into factories within Xinjiang and other Inner China provinces. Between 2017 and 2019, an estimated 80,000 Uyghurs have been transferred out of Xinjiang and assigned to factories across China under a central government policy known as Xinjiang Aid (援疆).
• March 2020
  The labour transfer of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities continue within Western China as the government proclaims that there are “no new cases of COVID-19.”
• July 2020
  New evidence uncovered by the New York Times reveals that Uyghur labourers, many who are interned forcibly, are involved in making personal protective equipment that are shipped all around the world.
• September 2020
  China’s State Council Information Office released a white paper entitled Employment and Labor Rights in Xinjiang. This paper demonstrates the increased presence of labourers and the scale of vocational training centers in Xinjiang.
• September 2020
  At the Third Central Xinjiang Work Forum, Xi Jinping reaffirmed the correctness of the policies that China’s leadership has been implementing in Xinjiang to ensure social stability and long-term peace. The current policy recommendations include the continuation of consolidating unity among all of China’s ethnic groups, making the form of Islam practiced by Xinjiang’s Muslims more Chinese, improving people’s livelihoods, maintaining the financial and psychological well-being of cadres, and promoting the region’s economic development as a critical point in the Belt and Road Initiative.
• September 2020
  A report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute finds the creation or expansion of over 380 detention centres in Xinjiang since 2017. This equates to “at least one new or expanded detention facility for every 37,000 people of non-Han” descent.
• June 2022
  On June 21, 2022, the U.S. Department of State began to implement its ban on goods produced using forced Uyghur labour in Xinjiang under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s announcement also included measures such as visa restrictions, sanctions, and export controls.