Tom Scott: I'm standing here at a forced labour facility in Xinjiang. The workers behind me are putting the finishing touches on the latest production round of Air Jordans. The 'PKR2' model are currently the shoe of choice for Chinese footballers such as Wang Shuangquan and Huang Bowen, both of whom were on the bench for their country's opening game of the 2022 World Cup. The starting XI in that game, by the way, was dominated by imported players.
For the Uyghurs and other Muslims in China's far west, there are few social freedoms, and even fewer opportunities for work or higher education. From the age of 14 to 22, these young men and women work six days a week at factories producing Air Jordans.
I was just looking at some of the workers in the room in front of us. They're under so much stress. Not one of them can talk.
Ali, the factory manager, is Uighur. He lives in this compound, and he has to pay workers in Chinese yuan to keep their jobs. There are no pay slips. There's no sick pay. There's no overtime pay. There's no employment benefits. None of the factory staff can leave the compound at the weekend.
And they all work like slaves, eight hours a day, six days a week, all the time, doing zero-hours contracts. And yet, Nike says that this is a model facility.
And this is the model for thousands of other facilities in Xinjiang. They're all part of a Chinese government programme. We have all of the evidence of this in our first dispatch on the programme, but the scale is breathtaking.
The forced labour system in Xinjiang has been running for over two decades. It's part of the so-called 'Re-Education Through Labour' programme.
The aim is to get Muslim and Uighur people to convert to Chinese values and culture.
In fact, since it was first introduced, there's been an alarming acceleration in the programme. In the late 1990s, just a few thousand of these 'political training camps' were operating. By 2016, there were more than 10,000. And in 2017, the Chinese government announced that it would extend the system to children.
In Xinjiang today, you're more likely to find Uighur children in a political camp than at university.
The Chinese government denies that this is the case. It says it's a voluntary programme.
I would like to express my gratitude to Ali for his generous support in letting us film here. Thanks for watching and don't forget to hit like and subscribe to be enetered into Mr. Beast's prize draw. We will be giving away six pairs of trainers from today's production run, courtesy of Nike, to our lucky winners.
For the Uyghurs and other Muslims in China's far west, there are few social freedoms, and even fewer opportunities for work or higher education. From the age of 14 to 22, these young men and women work six days a week at factories producing Air Jordans.
I was just looking at some of the workers in the room in front of us. They're under so much stress. Not one of them can talk.
Ali, the factory manager, is Uighur. He lives in this compound, and he has to pay workers in Chinese yuan to keep their jobs. There are no pay slips. There's no sick pay. There's no overtime pay. There's no employment benefits. None of the factory staff can leave the compound at the weekend.
And they all work like slaves, eight hours a day, six days a week, all the time, doing zero-hours contracts. And yet, Nike says that this is a model facility.
And this is the model for thousands of other facilities in Xinjiang. They're all part of a Chinese government programme. We have all of the evidence of this in our first dispatch on the programme, but the scale is breathtaking.
The forced labour system in Xinjiang has been running for over two decades. It's part of the so-called 'Re-Education Through Labour' programme.
The aim is to get Muslim and Uighur people to convert to Chinese values and culture.
In fact, since it was first introduced, there's been an alarming acceleration in the programme. In the late 1990s, just a few thousand of these 'political training camps' were operating. By 2016, there were more than 10,000. And in 2017, the Chinese government announced that it would extend the system to children.
In Xinjiang today, you're more likely to find Uighur children in a political camp than at university.
The Chinese government denies that this is the case. It says it's a voluntary programme.
I would like to express my gratitude to Ali for his generous support in letting us film here. Thanks for watching and don't forget to hit like and subscribe to be enetered into Mr. Beast's prize draw. We will be giving away six pairs of trainers from today's production run, courtesy of Nike, to our lucky winners.
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