URUMQI, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Hoshine Silicon Industry, a leading Chinese company in silica-based products, was sanctioned by the United States in mid-2021 in the name of "forced labor" smears. The company has since been fighting through legal means.
"We won't lay off any ethic employees. They have been making contributions to our company's development. How could we abandon them?" said Dai Tian, general manager of Xinjiang Middle Hoshine Scilicon Industry's Urumqi base when asked if Hoshine would consider laying off its Uygur employees in exchange for the revocation of the U.S. sanctions imposed on the company.
"WE KNOW TOO WELL THEIR PURPOSE"
In February, Hoshine filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. Court of International Trade, requesting the revocation of the Withhold Release Order that has detained its shipments.
Hoshine's independent subsidiary in Xinjiang has four production bases, with more than 11,000 ethnic minority employees, nearly 60 percent of its local staff.
At Xinjiang Middle Hoshine Silicon Industry's base in the suburb of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, several ethnic minority employees told Xinhua that they got their jobs through online applications or campus job fairs, slamming the "forced labor" allegations as totally ridiculous.
"My major in the university was polymer material and engineering. I applied for this job on the internet last year because my major matches the position and the company offered good pay," said test engineer Gulpari Abdursul, a 28-year-old Uygur woman. "Nobody was forced to work here. We are very angry about those rumors."
Adilijiang Alimu, a Uygur graduate from an engineering college in eastern China, who is now in charge of the green plants at the base, said he first learned about the company due to its giant production base in his hometown, Turpan. "I knew it was a big company. So when I saw its recruitment announcement on the internet, I was interested and I applied."
"Finding a job in Xinjiang, or more broadly in China, is a two-way selection process. We are in a law-based society. How could anyone be forced to work?" said Adilijiang.
Yeernaer Adierjian, a 22-year-old salesman of the Kazak ethnic group from Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, said he got the job through a campus career fair. He became emotional when talking about the "forced labor" accusations.
"As a native of Xinjiang and an employee of a company sanctioned by the United States, I do have a say," Yeernaer said. "We know too well their purpose. Even if they won't be able to split Xinjiang from China, they will do whatever they can to make Xinjiang unstable and unable to develop as part of their efforts to contain our country. I challenge those who invented the false allegations and those who spread them to come to Xinjiang and to my company to have a look."
Hoshine has been adjusting its production structure and tackling technical challenges in response to the sanctions, said Dai Tian. "We even invested more in Xinjiang after the sanctions." he said.
"We see safeguarding the great unity of our nation as our social responsibility. 'Forced labor' was merely an excuse to suppress the development of Chinese high-tech companies and to disrupt China's social stability and unity. So we should be even more united, and focus on developing and strengthening ourselves. That should be our spirit." Dai said.
ECONOMIC COERCION
Unilateral sanctions must not be used as a foreign policy tool and means of economic coercion, said an independent UN expert, referring to the U.S. sanctions.
"During my visit I received numerous reports on the unilateral sanctions' adverse impact and the consequent socioeconomic implications affecting peoples' lives," the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Alena Douhan, said in May following her 12-day official visit to China.
She said the decline in business activities and the significant loss of global markets caused by the unilateral sanctions led to job losses, with consequent disruptions in social protection schemes, by disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable, particularly in labour-intensive sectors, including women.
"Xinjiang is particularly affected, with key economic sectors and cross-border and international supply chains being disrupted for fear of primary or secondary sanctions for alleged commercial or production ties with this region," said Douhan, who visited cities in Xinjiang as well as Beijing and Shenzhen, a metropolis in Guangdong.
"I wish to reiterate the illegality of extraterritorial application of unilateral sanctions," said the expert. "The unilateral sanctions against China do not conform with a broad number of international legal norms and are introduced to apply pressure on the state."
The Special Rapporteur will present her country visit report to the UN Human Rights Council in September.
Tuersun Aibai, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Xinjiang University, who previously worked in a village in southern Xinjiang, said the sanctions were nothing but part of the U.S. strategy of "using Xinjiang to contain China" and have seriously infringed upon the rights of enterprises and Uygur workers, "having created forced unemployment."■