(TibetanReview.net, Jul23’24) – China is using its so-called “rural surplus labour transfer” policy, sometimes carried out under a broader regime policy of “poverty alleviation through labour transfer”, to potentially subject Tibetan farmers and herders to forced labour. And the risk of forced labour is rising in Tibet, specifically in its mining industry, as China’s hunger for the territory’s rich resources, especially those related to the renewable energy sector and the ‘green energy transition’, keeps growing, said a new report by New York-based Human Rights Foundation posted on its hrf.org website Jul 22. The report said available information taken from official sources and published reports warrant independent investigations of the true situation there.
China’s claim is that by facilitating the transition of workers in subsistence industries, such as herding and farming, to sectors with more “profitable” jobs, such as mining, the regime can grow key industrial sectors while also providing jobs to workers who are at risk of being “left behind” in Tibet’s economic growth. While this is ostensibly meant to promote societal progress, the industrialization of Tibetan lands and recruitment of local communities also disrupt traditional Tibetan livelihoods and raise questions about the extent to which Tibetans freely participate in the recruitment process, the report said.
It pointed out that this forced resettlement and sedentarization makes formerly self-sufficient farmers and nomads dependent on the regime’s markets and social support programmes to survive, hindering their customary way of life.
Due to China’s imposition of especially tight ban on access to Tibet, direct evidence, including testimonies, cannot be obtained. Nevertheless, certain parallels can be drawn between Tibet and the Uyghur Region in terms of policy terminology and implementation. The rural surplus labour transfer policies of Tibet contain the same key phrases (tifa) as those in the Uyghur Region, the report pointed out.
“Tifa” are CCP-approved terms that are euphemisms for specific and often sinister policies, and function like codewords. They refer to various, strictly-defined policies, and it is mandatory for regime officials to use tifa whenever discussing such policies and their implementation, to ensure total conformity in policy implementation. In both Tibet and the Uyghur Region, tifa for rural surplus labour transfer include language, such as “labour absorption”, “surplus rural labour transfer”, “labour export”, “transfer employment”, and other such phrases, the report noted.
Besides, both in Xinjiang and Tibet, employment is arranged by the state and local cadres go from door to door to recruit villagers, making the process strongly likely to be coercive in nature.
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The report cited two case studies in Tibet.
Zijin Mining Group Ltd., a state-owned Chinese company that mines gold, lithium, and copper, own two mines in Tibet. It was previously linked to forced labour practices in Xinjiang. It owns and runs the Julong Copper Mine, and the Lakkor Tso lithium mine in Tibet. Julong is one of the largest copper mines owned by China and is expected to operate until 2067, the report noted.
The report said an Apr 2023 article published by state media described how Julong, along with another mining company (Tibet Huatailong) and the Chikang Village Party Committee, engaged in trainings and that “labourers were exported”.
Besides, in 2018, Julong Mine exported 38 labourers, according to Menba Township’s 2018 poverty alleviation objective. This document mentioned that such labour export was done with the support of Maizhokunggar (Tibetan: Maldrogungkar) County’s government and the human resources and social security bureaus, the report said.
The second case study is on China Gold International Resources, a mining company based in Canada and owned by China. It is the parent company of Tibet Huatailong, which owns and operates Jiama mine, one of the biggest copper-gold polymetallic mines in Tibet. The parent company was stated to have cited in its 2018 Annual Report Tibet Huatailong’s employment of 377 Tibetans as a case study of how the company “has absorbed and arranged” employment of local Tibetan farmers and herders – echoing the tifa associated with labour transfer programmes.
Indeed, Tibet Huatailong was stated to have engaged in this example of possible labour transfer in accordance with a government poverty alleviation scheme as outlined in the Lhasa City government’s Thirteenth Five-Year Plan Characteristic Industry Development Plan (2017). In another instance, Tibet Huatailong was stated to have spoken of having “absorbed” 435 farmers and herdsmen by 2020 – the word “absorb” being a key indicator that this employment may have been implemented as part of a labour transfer programme.
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A strong indication that forced labour is being implemented in Tibet could be seen from the fact that a Jan 2023 Chinese law applying to the entire Tibetan Autonomous Region states that if Tibetans refuse to accept state-arranged employment three times, the regime will reduce or suspend subsistence allowances on which many Tibetans have come to depend for survival. This financial penalty, though not directly mentioned in rural labour transfer policies, should be examined as an additional potential risk factor for state-imposed coercive labour conditions in Tibet, the report said.
Calling for independent investigations of the situation in Tibet, the report made it clear that the potential for forced labour in Tibet isn’t confined to just these two mining companies. Other mines based in Tibet should also be investigated, such as the Luobusa chromite mine. This mine’s parent company, Tibet Mining, published a 2020 Social Responsibility Report which explicitly admits to concentrating “surplus labour” and engaging in the “relocation” of households in Qamdo in the context of governmental poverty alleviation laws. Tibet Mining’s own parent company, Baowu, also describes Tibet Mining as engaging in labour transfer and has even been linked to forced labour in the Uyghur Region, the report noted.