Where go the Uighurs A newly released research report from the Center for Global Policy indicates that the Chinese are now forcing Uighurs to hand-pick cotton in the western province of Xinjiang, north of Tibet. Xinjiang produces 20% of the world supply of cotton. The report notes that hand-picked cotton is considered to be of higher quality than machine-picked, and that the government had previously used prison labor to pick the cotton, creating a “cotton gulag.” Now, through “poverty alleviation programs,” even more laborers are being forced into the back-breaking work. But beyond the purported efforts at eliminating poverty (a long-stated goal of Chinese President Xi), the enslavement of the local population is an effort at population control. The report notes, “[W]orkers who work and live on secure compounds… are more easily controlled.” In addition, in some regions, working-age Uighurs are shipped off to state-assigned cotton-picking work assignments” while their children and elderly parents are cared for by the state.”