AFP

Minorities have been drafted into forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing, a report by an independent UN expert has concluded, in what it said could amount to “enslavement as a crime against humanity”.

Beijing has been accused of detaining over a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, as well as carrying out forced sterilisation of women and coerced labour.

The United States and lawmakers in other western countries have gone as far as accusing China of committing “genocide” against the minority groups, allegations that Beijing denies.

The report released Tuesday by UN special rapporteur on modern slavery Tomoya Obokata pointed to two “distinct state-mandated systems” in China in which forced labour has occurred, citing think tank and NGO reports as well as victims. 

One is a vocational skills education and training centre system in which minorities are detained and subject to work placements, while another involves attempts to reduce poverty through labour transfer, in which rural workers are moved into “secondary or tertiary work”.

“While these programmes may create employment opportunities for minorities and enhance their incomes… the special rapporteur considers that indicators of forced labour pointing to the involuntary nature of work rendered by affected communities have been present in many cases,” the report said.

The nature and extent of powers exercised over the workers — including excessive surveillance and abusive living and working conditions — could “amount to enslavement as a crime against humanity, meriting a further independent analysis”, it said.

The report noted a similar labour transfer system exists in Tibet, where the “programme has shifted mainly farmers, herders and other rural workers into low-skilled and low-paid employment”.

Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but who do not speak on behalf of the world body.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Wednesday accused Obokata of “choosing to believe lies and disinformation fabricated by the US… as well as anti-China forces”.

Insisting that minorities’ rights were protected, Wang slammed the UN special rapporteur for “viciously smearing China and acting as a political tool for anti-China forces.”

China has long claimed it was running vocational training centres in Xinjiang designed to counter extremism, with President Xi Jinping visiting the region last month and hailing the “great progress” made in reform and development.

In May, the United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet concluded a rare six-day visit to China that also took her to Xinjiang.

Her trip was criticised by the United States and major rights groups for a lack of firmness towards Beijing, with critics saying she visited more as a diplomat rather than a human rights champion.

Bachelet is due to publish a long-awaited report on the issue before she steps down at the end of the month.

Minorities have been drafted into forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing, a report by an independent UN expert has concluded, in what it said could amount to “enslavement as a crime against humanity”.

Beijing has been accused of detaining over a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, as well as carrying out forced sterilisation of women and coerced labour.

The United States and lawmakers in other western countries have gone as far as accusing China of committing “genocide” against the minority groups, allegations that Beijing denies.

The report released Tuesday by UN special rapporteur on modern slavery Tomoya Obokata pointed to two “distinct state-mandated systems” in China in which forced labour has occurred, citing think tank and NGO reports as well as victims. 

One is a vocational skills education and training centre system in which minorities are detained and subject to work placements, while another involves attempts to reduce poverty through labour transfer, in which rural workers are moved into “secondary or tertiary work”.

“While these programmes may create employment opportunities for minorities and enhance their incomes… the special rapporteur considers that indicators of forced labour pointing to the involuntary nature of work rendered by affected communities have been present in many cases,” the report said.

The nature and extent of powers exercised over the workers — including excessive surveillance and abusive living and working conditions — could “amount to enslavement as a crime against humanity, meriting a further independent analysis”, it said.

The report noted a similar labour transfer system exists in Tibet, where the “programme has shifted mainly farmers, herders and other rural workers into low-skilled and low-paid employment”.

Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but who do not speak on behalf of the world body.

China has long insisted it was running vocational training centres in Xinjiang designed to counter extremism, with President Xi Jinping visiting the region last month and hailing the “great progress” made in reform and development.

In May, the United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet concluded a rare six-day visit to China that also took her to Xinjiang.

Her trip was criticised by the United States and major rights groups for a lack of firmness towards Beijing, with critics saying she visited more as a diplomat rather than a human rights champion.

Bachelet is due to publish a long-awaited report on the issue before she steps down at the end of the month.

In a town in northeastern Scotland, Debbie Banks looks for clues to track down criminals as she clicks through a database of tiger skins.

There are thousands of photographs, including of rugs, carcasses and taxidermy specimens. 

Banks, the crime campaign leader for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a London-based charity, tries to identify individual big cats from their stripes.

Once a tiger is identified, an investigator can pinpoint where it comes from. 

“A tiger’s stripes are as unique as human fingerprints,” Banks told AFP.

“We can use the images to cross-reference against images of captive tigers that might have been farmed.”

Currently this is slow painstaking work.

But a new artificial intelligence tool, being developed by The Alan Turing Institute, a centre in the UK for data science and artificial intelligence, should make life much easier for Banks and law enforcement officials. 

The project aims to develop and test AI technology that can analyse the tigers’ stripes in order to identify them.

“We have a database of images of tigers that have been offered for sale or have been seized,” Banks said.

“When our investigators get new images, we need to scan those against the database.

“At the moment we are doing that manually, looking at the individual stripe patterns of each new image that we get and cross-referencing it against the ones we have in our database.”

It is hoped that the new technology will help law enforcement agencies determine where tiger skins come from and allow them to investigate the transnational networks involved in trafficking tigers.

Once the officials know the origins of confiscated tiger skins and products, they will be able to tell whether the animal was farmed or poached from a protected area.

Poaching, fuelled by consumer demand, remains a major threat to the survival of the species, according to the EIA. 

Tiger skins and body parts are sought after, partly due to their use in traditional Chinese medicine.

An estimated 4,500 tigers remain in the wild across Asia. 

“Tigers faced a massive population decline in the last 120 years, so we want to do everything we can to help end the trade in their parts and products, including tiger skins,” Banks said.

Anyone with photographs of tigers is invited to submit them to the EIA to help bolster the AI database. 

“We are inviting individuals — whether they are photographers or researchers and academics — who may have images of tigers where their stripe patterns are clear,” Banks said.

“They could be live tigers, dead tigers or tiger parts.

“If they can share those with us, the data scientists can then develop, train and test the algorithm,” she said.

“We need thousands of images just to do that phase of the project.”

Elon Musk tweeted on Tuesday that “I’m not buying any sports teams”, calling a viral post about him purchasing Manchester United a joke.

The world’s richest man has a habit of posting provocative statements on Twitter for fun and Musk was at it again when he told his more than 103 million followers: “Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome.”

The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the comment in reply to another of his tweets, about supporting both of the United States’ two major political parties.

The 51-year-old, who is embroiled in a lawsuit over his bid to buy Twitter, was subsequently asked on the platform if he was serious about owning Manchester United. 

“No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams,” Musk replied, after his original tweet garnered nearly 500,000 “likes” in a matter of hours.

“Although, if it were any team, it would be Man U. They were my fav team as a kid.”

Manchester United, one of the biggest clubs in world football but suffering a prolonged slump, are owned by the Glazer family. They have been targeted by angry fans.

There was no immediate reaction from United or its owners to Musk’s tweets.

Shares of the team listed on the New York Stock Exchange are down year to date, but ended Tuesday flat, with a market capitalization of $2.1 billion.

Despite calling it a joke, Musk’s tweet could land him in trouble with US regulators.

The Glazers are the focus of fan fury after the team’s dramatic fall from grace.

The Americans also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an NFL franchise in Florida.

United fans have protested against the team’s senior management for poor performances in recent years, as well as their involvement in a plan to start a new “Super League” of Europe’s richest teams.

The Red Devils finished last season a lowly sixth in the English Premier League.

United have made another poor start to the campaign under their new coach Erik ten Hag and are bottom of the table after two defeats in as many games.

Fresh protests against the Glazers are planned ahead of United’s next game, at home to fierce rivals Liverpool on August 22.

Musk, who recently sold nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla shares, is in a major legal battle in the US state of Delaware over his aborted plan to buy Twitter.

Scorching temperatures in eastern China have pushed up egg prices because hens are laying fewer in a hotter-than-usual summer, local media reported.

Extreme weather has become more frequent owing to climate change, scientists say, and this will likely grow more intense as temperatures rise, impacting economies and societies around the world.

Multiple major cities in China have recorded their hottest days ever this year, and the country’s national observatory issued a red alert on Monday.

And the heat wave is putting not only humans, but animals under stress too.

In Hefei city, farmers reported a drop in egg production because of the heat, according to a Jianghuai Morning News report last week, adding that some facilities have installed cooling systems for their hens.

The drop in supply in several provinces has caused egg prices to jump.

In Hefei, Anhui province’s capital, they were up around 30 percent, and there were similar spikes in the cities of Hangzhou and Hai’an, according to local media.

Hefei has so far logged 14 days of temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius, Hefei Evening News said, noting that this was a record.

Sustained exposure to extreme temperatures can exacerbate losses in production from animals, including eggs and milk, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

While the number of hens laying in China has not decreased, they have been eating less on hot days, Qianjiang Evening News added.

In addition to impacting poultry farms, the heat wave has also forced electricity rationing in lithium hub Sichuan in the face of soaring demand for power.

Provinces including Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui that rely on power from western China have also issued electricity curbs for industrial users to ensure homes had enough power, local media reported.

And in eastern China’s Jiangxi province, which is in the grip of a severe drought, 11,000 people had difficulty accessing drinking water while more than 140,000 hectares of crops were damaged, according to the official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.