For some time, politicians in the US have been showing increasing “interest” in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in Northwest China, making systemic slandering and unilateral sanctions against China. But lies cannot stand the scrutiny of facts. The so-called “genocide” and “forced labour” in Xinjiang are the biggest lies of the century fabricated by the US in an attempt to smear and contain China. In late June this year, the US has enacted and implemented the "Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act", denigrated the human rights situation in Xinjiang and undermined people's livelihood and development of Xinjiang. Workers in Xinjiang choose their jobs, including those in the high-income industry of cotton picking, on their own volition. They sign labour contracts as a free and equal party, their rights and interests are well protected, and they enjoy full remuneration. If making a decent living is "forced labour", then should they only deserve "forced poverty" and "forced unemployment"? 

    By describing the scene in the US’s illusion, those politicians are actually giving a “self-introduction” of the situation in their own country—Forced labour is a chronic disease of the US that goes all the way back to its founding. It remains rampant today, and is getting worse than ever.

    -- Forced labour in the US was born and grew with the founding of the nation and its primitive accumulation of capital. Slave trade was an original sin of the US. The blood and tears of the millions of black slaves and the bones of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese labourers are unmistakable evidence of forced labour in the history of the US. For a country with a history of only 246 years, slavery had been legal in the US for almost one-third of its history. Data shows that the value of labour extracted from black slaves by US slave owners is as high as US$14 trillion at current prices.

    -- The US has a horrible domestic track record of forced labour. At least 500,000 people in the US are living under modern slavery. Forced labour in the US is pervasive in 23 sectors including domestic services, agricultural planting, tourism, catering, medical care and beauty services. In 2004, the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley pointed out that ten thousand or more people work as forced labourers in scores of cities and towns across the country, forming an illicit trade that is hidden, inhumane, widespread and criminal.  Moreover, forced labour among children are particularly abhorring. To date, the US remains the only one of the 193 member states of the United Nations that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Statistics from the US Department of Health and Human Services and other institutions show that half of the 100,000 people trafficked into the country each year for forced labour are minors. In 2019 alone, US law enforcement officers found 858 cases of child labour in violation of the Fair Labour Standards Act, and 544 minors were found working in hazardous places.

    -- The widespread negative impact of forced labour in the US has caused serious transnational human trafficking and human rights violations in other countries. The US is an underperformer in the ratification and implementation of international labour conventions, which matches its long-standing poor record of forced labour and labour rights violations. According to the International Labour Organization statistics, the US has ratified only 14 international labour conventions, one of the lowest numbers among member states. It has ratified only two out of the ten core conventions, and has not yet ratified the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 till this day. The US is a source, transit hub, and destination country for victims of forced labour and slavery. Both legal and illegal industries in the US have serious human trafficking problems. In the past five years, cases of forced labour and human trafficking were reported in all over the country. According to statistics released by the National Human Trafficking Hotline, the number of reported cases increased significantly from over 3,200 in 2012 to about 11,500 in 2019. In 2020, 10,583 cases were reported, involving 16,658 victims.

    The international community has long been seriously concerned about forced labour in the US and relevant authorities have repeatedly questioned and criticized the US. However, the US has turned a deaf ear to this and even wantonly smeared other countries by falsely accusing them of “forced labour”. Facts prove that the US, which has serious human rights problems such as forced labour, is in no position whatsoever to lecture other countries on human rights, still less posing as a human rights judge and adopting unilateral and illegal sanctions. The US needs to face up to its own serious forced labour issue and respond to the international community’s concerns sooner rather than later. After all, slinging mud at others is no way to clean up its own record. 

    The wanton accusation against China is another example of the US undermining human rights, rules and the rule of law in the name of exercising them. The intent to destabilize Xinjiang and use Xinjiang to contain China is all too clear. No one can hide facts forever and justice will eventually prevail. Blind to its own human rights record but obsessed with lying about and attacking other countries—the US is acting like a mafia boss and the world knows it. The US move is against the trend of the times and bound to fail.