US Department of State Published The annual Global Human Rights Report released on Tuesday highlighted the actions of the Chinese Communist Party, detailing accusations of serious human rights violations, including genocide, slavery, labor abuse, forced abortions, and various forms of torture against dissenters.
The State Department’s yearly human rights report, which is categorized by country, covers events from the previous year. The 2025 release, made public this week, specifically updates information on the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other non-Han ethnic groups in East Turkestan. Evidence suggests that the Chinese Communist Party has attempted, perhaps vigorously, to suppress the Turkish population in East Turkestan for decades. Experts generally agree that Xi Jinping’s regime significantly intensified this effort in 2017, transforming the region into a high-tech surveillance area and detaining around 3 million people in camps.
In response to a surge of criticism from activist organizations focusing on the plight of Uyghurs, the Chinese government has branded these camps as “vocational education centers,” claiming that most detainees have “graduated.” Yet, survivors recount harrowing experiences of beatings, psychological torture, sexual violence, and forms of slavery inflicted by guards within these facilities.
Moreover, the Chinese government is reportedly engaging in mass sterilization of Uyghur women and forcibly relocating children to boarding schools that cut them off from their families and cultural ties, which is seen as a hallmark of genocide.
The State Department indicated that these violations are expected to persist into 2024, with a wide array of human rights abuses also occurring outside East Turkestan. These include the persecution of journalists, human rights lawyers, activists, and labor organizers perceived as threats to the Communist Party. The report outlines a catalog of human rights violations such as:
arbitrary killings, enforced disappearances, torture or cruel, inhumane treatment, forced medical procedures, arbitrary arrests, and detentions, particularly affecting over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. It also identifies oppressive actions against individuals abroad, severe restrictions on free expression and media, including unfounded arrests of journalists and activists, limitations on religious practices, enforced abortions and sterilizations, human trafficking, and restrictions on workers’ rights, including widespread child labor.
The report emphasized outright that “genocide and crimes occurred during the year” against the Turkish population in what China refers to as the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”
Years after the announced closure of the camps, accounts of fatalities during detention persist. Many were reportedly transferred from the original camps, but the report stated that these individuals were not released but relocated into the official prison system on suspicious charges.
In daily life, surveillance has intensified, especially for non-Han individuals in the region. The report notes that Chinese oversight extends deeply into personal affairs, while social media continues to face censorship. Even humorous references, like images of Winnie the Pooh that mock Xi Jinping, are routinely blocked.
Additionally, the State Department recorded a near-total absence of labor rights. Despite the Communist Party’s claim to Marxist principles, there is abundant evidence of labor exploitation. In East Turkestan, a “labor transfer” program is ongoing, effectively moving Uyghur laborers across the country. Contrary to regulations that purportedly protect workers, many are forced into grueling six-day work weeks.
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The report underscored that employers are not legally bound to engage in good faith negotiations. Some have flatly refused, leading to collective contracts that merely adjust wages and hours dictated by law.
Police have been brutal toward workers who challenge their employers. Some demonstrators have faced arrest on vague charges like “incitement to overthrow state power.” The detailed examination from the State Department highlighted that state accountability for disappearances and abuses is often nonexistent.
“Disappearance enacted through various means on a systematic level,” was how the report put it. Many accounts reveal that those forced into hiding have endured various forms of abuse, including physical and psychological torture.
Reports detailed brutal treatment of dissidents, listing methods such as beatings, sexual abuse, electric shocks, prolonged isolation, and coerced confessions.
In response, the Chinese government expressed “strong grievances” regarding the State Department’s human rights assessment, labeling the accusations as unfounded slanders. Chinese state media also criticized the U.S. as not being a model for human rights, juxtaposing Beijing’s actions with U.S. history.
