The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) announced last year that it was ceasing all operations in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region amid accusations of "forced labor" there. The statement has disappeared from its website as backlash grows in China against the organization and its members' attempts to boycott Xinjiang cotton.
Children play with snow in the Ancient City of Kashgar scenic area in Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Nov. 21, 2020.
GUANGZHOU, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Two scholars from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region debunked the "forced labor" claims about Uygur workers in a recent interview with Xinhua. Nilufer Gheyret and Chen Ning, both visiting research fellows at Jinan University in south China's Guangdong Province, published a report in March after conducting a field research among 70 ethnic minority workers from five companies, shedding light on the Xinjiang ethnic minority workers' employment in the province.
TASHKENT, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The Xinjiang cotton boycott instigated by some Western countries is part of their tactics to curb China's development, a Uzbek political expert has said. In an interview with Xinhua on Saturday, Anri Sharapov, professor at the Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies, said that under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), stunning results have been achieved in China's national economy, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has become a major producer and exporter of cotton to the world market, where competition is tough.
