Creation: Political Economy Group of the Proletarian Liberation Struggle Association
On December 3rd, the BBC released an investigative report stating that various tomato sauces sold in UK supermarkets may contain tomato raw materials from Xinjiang, China, which could be the product of “forced labor.” The BBC also released a so-called exposé video alleging that Xinjiang tomatoes involve “forced labor,” calling on Western countries to stop using Xinjiang tomato raw materials or finished products. On December 5th, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded: “There is no ‘forced labor’ in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has always firmly opposed and cracked down on ‘forced labor.’ Xinjiang tomatoes, like Xinjiang cotton, are high-quality products renowned worldwide and well-known to all. From planting to harvesting, mechanization has basically been achieved, with mechanical harvesting rates exceeding 90% and 85%, respectively. So where is the ‘forced labor’?”… Last week, Xinjiang cotton was hyped up, this week Xinjiang tomatoes, and next week, will they also target Xinjiang’s photovoltaic, carrots, or even beef and mutton? No matter how slanderous and blackened the accusations, they cannot change the fact that Xinjiang products are high-quality and excellent in both price and quality, nor can they undermine the stable and prosperous development of Xinjiang’s economy and society."
The Chinese imperialists’ brutal ethnic oppression policies in minority-inhabited areas like Xinjiang are an undeniable fact. In Xinjiang, there are reactionary institutions such as the so-called “Thought Transformation Camps” and “Re-education Camps,” which under the guise of “correcting religious extremism infiltration,” imprison and oppress ethnic minority peoples. One month after the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee in 2014, the Xinjiang Party Committee’s Eighth Plenary (Expanded) Meeting approved the “Opinions of the CPC Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Committee on Comprehensively Promoting the Rule of Law in Xinjiang and Building a Law-Based Xinjiang.” According to interviews with Phoenix News reporters, many grassroots officials in Xinjiang admitted that in the actual work of de-extremization, a major obstacle was the lack of legal support; many policies and laws lagged behind the changing situation, lacked rigidity, and were not targeted enough. A township party secretary in Hotan said: “The basic facts are clear, but we suffer from a lack of legal backing. When we try to govern, some even accuse us of managing illegal activities with illegal means. We cannot beat or scold, only persuade and educate, which is almost ineffective.” These running dogs of Chinese imperialism wave the constitution distorted by the bureaucratic monopoly bourgeoisie to defend their interests, under the “guarantee of state coercive power,” using violence and insults to carry out the most savage class and ethnic oppression. They destroy minority cultures and brutally exploit minority peoples in ethnic concentration camps. On the streets of Tibet, Xinjiang, and other places, police immediately expel or even arrest people gathered in small groups speaking minority languages; minority children do not learn their own language in daily life but are taught “mute language” in classrooms set up by the Chinese revisionists. In the “Xinjiang tomato” incident, 14 interviewees told the BBC that over the past 16 years, they had witnessed or experienced forced labor in Xinjiang tomato fields. “The (prison authorities) told us these tomatoes are for export,” said Ahmed (pseudonym). “If workers do not meet the quota, such as 650 kilograms per day, they will be beaten with electric batons by prison guards.” Mamutjan, a Uyghur teacher imprisoned in 2015 for irregular travel documents, said he was beaten for not completing assigned high work quotas. “In the dark cell, ropes hang from the ceiling. They hung me up and said, ‘Why haven’t you finished your work?’ They beat my buttocks and ribs fiercely. I still have scars.”
However, is the BBC, as the mouthpiece of British monopoly bourgeoisie, truly exposing the Chinese revisionist government’s ethnic oppression policies to save minority peoples and defend “human rights”? The BBC reporter’s report did not reveal how Xinjiang concentration camps produce tomatoes for resale to Europe, but only tracked the source of tomato raw materials in major supermarkets and tomato processing plants, analyzed trace elements in tomato sauce to confirm whether they come from Xinjiang, China, or disguised businesspeople secretly investigating tomato processors to find evidence that “certain companies used Chinese tomatoes.” The BBC’s investigation showed that an Italian company called “Antonio Petti” imported 36,000 tons of tomatoes from China’s “Xinjiang Guannong” between 2020 and 2023, and processed them into products labeled “Made in Italy,” then transported to supermarkets and processing plants across Europe. When the BBC reporter disguised as a major merchant secretly investigated the “Italian Food” company under the Petti Group, General Manager Pascale Petti revealed: “Yes… no one in Europe wants Chinese tomatoes. But if it’s you, then we can find a way to offer you the best price, even if it involves Chinese tomatoes.” Their goal is not to condemn the Chinese revisionist government’s oppression of minorities but to use the banner of “no forced labor products” to attack a series of popular Italian brands and supermarket private labels in Europe. At the end of the report, the BBC quoted responses from British human rights organizations and government officials calling for “finding the best ways to address forced labor and environmental harm and conducting international cooperation to improve global labor standards.” A BBC journalist’s remark revealed their true intention: “When we see low prices, we must ask ourselves: what is behind this? What is the real cost of these products? Who is paying for it?” For the bourgeoisie, “human rights” are not the issue; the problem is that Chinese tomatoes use cheap forced labor, greatly lowering costs. In northwest China and other suitable climates, Chinese tomatoes account for about one-third of global production. These cheap tomatoes and their processed products flooding into European markets inevitably harm the interests of the agricultural monopoly bourgeoisie. To squeeze out “Xinjiang tomatoes” from the European market, the European bourgeoisie uses their mouthpiece, the BBC, to wave the banner of “human rights.” The results of this report also prove this: the BBC conducted internal investigations into many supermarkets accused of using Xinjiang tomatoes, some of which suspended tomato product supplies and removed these products; their suppliers also face “anti-forced labor sanctions” from Western governments.
The verbal and trade battles between Western imperialism and Chinese imperialism often hide behind the banner of “human rights.” But the more they claim to uphold “justice,” the more their true ugly faces are exposed. We must see that both sides are vicious enemies of the people; only when oppressed peoples of all countries and nations unite can they truly overthrow the heavy shackles imposed by imperialism.
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