On December 16, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation hosted distinguished speakers for a virtual event discussing Senior Research Fellow for China Studies Dr. Adrian Zenz‘ breaking report "Coercive Labor in Xinjiang: Labor Transfer and the Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities to Pick Cotton".
His report presents new evidence that hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority laborers in Xinjiang are being forced to pick cotton by hand through a coercive state-mandated labor transfer and “poverty alleviation” scheme, with potentially drastic consequences for global supply chains.
Speakers:
Dr. Adrian Zenz is a Senior Fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Washington, D.C. (non-resident), and supervises Ph.D. students at the European School of Culture and Theology, Korntal, Germany. His research focus is on China’s ethnic policy, public recruitment in Tibet and Xinjiang, Beijing’s internment campaign in Xinjiang, and China’s domestic security budgets. Dr. Zenz is the author of Tibetanness under Threat and co-editor of Mapping Amdo: Dynamics of Change. He has played a leading role in the analysis of leaked Chinese government documents, including the “China Cables” and the “Karakax List.” Dr. Zenz is an advisor to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, and a frequent contributor to the international media.
Kyle Bass is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Hayman Capital Management, an investment manager of private funds focused on global event-driven opportunities. Bass is a founding member of the Committee on the Present Danger: China. He is also Chairman of the Board of The Rule of Law Foundation. He has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. In 2015, Bass was recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Influential People in the Global Patent Market as named by Intellectual Asset Management magazine.
Rushan Abbas is Founder of Campaign for Uyghurs. Abbas is a former student activist of the pro-democracy demonstrations at Xinjiang University in 1985 and 1988. She served as the Vice-President of the Students’ Science and Culture Union at the university in 1987. Abbas frequently briefed the U.S lawmakers and officials on the human rights situation in Xinjiang. She regularly appears on media outlets to advocate for the Uyghur cause and gives public speeches in universities and think tanks.
Representative Tom Suozzi, trained as an attorney and CPA, is the Congressman representing the Third Congressional District in New York. He is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, the chief tax-writing committee of the House of Representatives, serving on both the Oversight and Tax Policy subcommittees. In May of 2019, Congressman Suozzi was appointed to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and is one of the lead sponsors of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the House.
Born in 1979 in France, Raphaël Glucksmann is an essayist and French Member of the European Parliament. He is the author ofGénération gueule de bois, Manuel de lutte contre les réacs (2015), Notre France, Dire et aimer ce que nous sommes (2016), and Les Enfants du vide (2018). After graduating from SciencePo Paris, he was first a journalist in Algeria (2002) before carrying out an investigation and a documentary (“Kill them all!”) on France's responsibility for the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda. (2004). From 2008 to 2013, he participated in the rapprochement of Georgia and the European Union by working with Prime Minister Mikheil Saakashvili. In November 2013, he took part in pro-European demonstrations in Ukraine which led to the Maidan Revolution (February 2014). He campaigned in favor of a dignified and unconditional reception of refugees in 2015. From late 2017 to September 2018, he was the director of the Nouveau Magazine Littéraire, a French monthly magazine about literature and ideas. He founded the Place publique movement with environmentalist Claire Nouvian in November 2018, in order to bring together social and environmental forces around common ideas and struggles. He lead the "Envie d'Europe" list for the 2019 European elections. Through his commitments to human rights and his writings, Raphaël Glucksmann carries a democratic, ecological, and humanist vision of the world.
