While it’s been well documented that cotton production in China’s Xinjiang region is at high risk of using Uyghur forced labor, the Uyghur Human Rights Project has found that 20 percent of red dates in the global supply chain also are probably similarly tainted. It found that the Xinjiang Construction and Production Corps (XPCC) or “Bingtuan,” a paramilitary and corporate organization responsible for mass internment and forced labor, holds a majority stake in at least 13 red date companies, which account for more than 25 percent of China’s production. Additionally, the fruit is frequently grown with cotton and thus would draw from the same involuntary labor pool.
