Latest news with #PeterIrwin
The Independent
18-04-2025
- The Independent
Hotel chains should not ‘sanitise' China abuses in Xinjiang, Uyghur rights group says in new report
Nearly 200 international hotels, including prominent chains, are either already operating in Xinjiang or planning to open in the region, despite reports of widespread human rights abuses by China, according to a new report. The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) has identified at least 115 operational hotels that 'benefit from a presence in the Uyghur region', including major international hotel chains — Accor, Hilton, IHG, Marriott, and Wyndham. Additionally, at least 74 other hotels are in various stages of construction or planning in China 's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). These hotels are 'operating and dramatically expanding their presence in East Turkistan despite ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide ', the UHRP said in a report published on Thursday. The report also mentions that some of the hotels have connections to forced labour and labour transfer programmes. 'By offering high-end accommodations and leisure spaces, international hotel chains contribute to a sanitised image of the region, one that directly serves Beijing 's propaganda objectives,' it said. Xinjiang, one of the most ethnically diverse regions in China, has been witnessing systematic abuses against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic groups under the guise of 'terrorism' and 'religious extremism' by the government in Beijing, activists say. According to Amnesty International, it is estimated that over a million people have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps throughout Xinjiang since 2017. The international human rights group has stated that China is carrying out mass internment, torture, re-education, forced labour, the criminalisation of acts of religious expression, and the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. Legal experts and world governments have called China's indoctrination and human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities a genocide, a claim yet to be taken to the international court. China has denied reports of its mistreatment of minorities in the Xinjiang region. Experts working on the report have called on the hotels working in the region not to normalise China's human rights abuses. 'It's unconscionable that these hotel chains continue to operate and expand in the Uyghur Region at a time when the Chinese government is carrying out systematic atrocities,' said Peter Irwin, co-author of the report and the associate director for research and advocacy at the UHRP. 'There is absolutely no way these multibillion-dollar corporations can operate responsibly in this environment – their presence alone normalises and legitimises these abuses,' he said. The rise in the number of hotels operating in China's far west comes at a time when Beijing is promoting Xinjiang as a tourist destination, with state media claiming around 300 million visitors to the region in 2024 alone. According to the UHRP report, hotel chains operating in the Uyghur region 'risk enabling and legitimising the political and economic system that perpetuates forced labour, cultural erasure and other human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs'. The leading hotels 'support the very apparatus of state control that enforces these atrocities' by maintaining a presence in the region, it said. Seeking action, the UHRP has called on the international hotel chains to freeze their further expansion in the region, halt all operations and sever any business ties, and third-party booking platforms to delist all hotel booking services in the region.
The Guardian
17-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Uyghur rights group calls on hotel chains not to ‘sanitise' China abuses in Xinjiang
Almost 200 international hotels are operating or planning to open in Xinjiang, despite calls from human rights groups for global corporations not to help 'sanitise' the Chinese government's human rights abuses in the region, a report has said. The report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) identified 115 operational hotels which the organisation said 'benefit from a presence in the Uyghur region'. At least another 74 were in various stages of construction or planning, the report said. The UHRP said some of the hotels also had exposure or links of concern to forced labour and labour transfer programmes. The explosion in hotel numbers coincides with the Chinese government's efforts to push Xinjiang as a tourism destination after years of criticism and sanctions over its crackdown on the local Muslim population. In 2024 Xinjiang recorded about 300 million visitors, according to state media, including almost 5 million foreign tourists – 50% more than in 2023. Several world governments and legal groups have declared the government's actions against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to be a genocide, although this has not been settled in any international court. The UN says that China's policies in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch has said the policies – which include mass internment and re-education, forced labour, and criminalisation of acts of religious expression – amount to crimes against humanity. China's government denies all accusations of abuse and mistreatment in Xinjiang. Human rights groups have argued that foreign enterprises having a presence in Xinjiang lends legitimacy to the Chinese government's crackdown, and called on firms to vacate. In November car manufacturer, Volkswagen, sold its Xinjiang factory after years of pressure. But as Beijing promotes Xinjiang as holiday destination for domestic and international tourists, the spotlight has turned to foreign tourism businesses. In 2023 the Guardian reported on a number of tour operators advertising holiday packages through Xinjiang. Now, hotel companies appear to be growing their footprint. Well known brands including France's Accor, Hilton, the British IHG Group, Marriott and Wyndham are among hundreds of existing or developing hotels across the region. The sites listed included luxurious upmarket hotels, across city locations as well as ski resort areas where the Chinese government has heavily invested in winter tourism. The report said three companies – Hilton, IHG, and Wyndham – all had hotels, and potentially paid fees or taxes – in areas administered by China's state-owned paramilitary entity, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). The XPCC has been sanctioned by several governments including the US, UK and EU, over 'serious rights abuses against ethnic minorities'. Peter Irwin, associate director for research and advocacy at UHRP, said: 'This kind of hotel expansion, from international chains in particular, falls squarely within the Chinese government's own strategy to try and normalise the public's understanding of what's going on in the Uyghur region. 'The government can point to these major companies entrenching themselves in the region as evidence that everything is normal, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.' One recently opened hotel, by a Hilton franchisee, was built on the site of a mosque in Khotan which was demolished amid a government campaign which saw more than 10,000 religious sites destroyed. 'Building a hotel on the site of a demolished mosque is particularly egregious, given that the Chinese government has undertaken a broad campaign to tear down mosques across the Uyghur Region since 2017,' the report said. It said the hotel was not visible on English-language travel booking sites but China's CTrip showed reviews dating back to about mid-2024. Tuesday's report assessed government records, corporate records and media articles, to determine whether hotels had other links of concern, including ownership structures with particular Chinese companies and involvement in state programmes identified by human rights researchers. In another case study, the report identified links between Accor's Grand Mercure Urumqi Hualing hotel and a training and employment program. A state media report from one symposium said a human resources director from the hotel had visited and signed letters of intent with many students. The symposium was targeted at young people and 'surplus rural labour' workers from ethnic minorities, as part of the government's poverty alleviation and 'social stability' goals. The government says its Xinjiang employment programs are part of 'poverty alleviation' efforts but has been accused of forced labour and labour transfer programmes that breach human rights. The report also said Accor's strategic partner in China, H World Group Limited, had used a recruitment and training program, Xinjiang Aid, which a US congressional investigation found contributed to the risk of human trafficking. In 2020 four US agencies warned the program may make use of internment camp labor or workers from 'abusive labour programs'. 'These hotels continue to operate and expand business in a region in which Uyghur families have been torn apart by internment, imprisonment, forced labor programs, and enforced disappearances,' said Dr Henryk Szadziewski, co-author of the report and director of research at the UHRP. The report called for the hotel chains to initiate 'immediate reviews' of their operations, given they had all made pledges to adopt international human rights standards. It urged them to freeze expansion plans, halt operations and sever business ties. 'They should publicly disclose their decision to exit, conduct heightened human rights due diligence, and engage with Uyghur rights organizations for remediation,' the report said. The Guardian contacted Accor, Hilton, IHG, Marriott, and Wyndham for comment, but none has responded. Timothy Grose a professor of China studies with expertise in ethnic policy at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, said investing in the region's tourism was not a bad thing in principle. 'In fact, the investments could bring great benefits to local economies,' he told the Guardian. 'However, if recent history repeats itself, the construction of new hotels, which may attract thousands of my tourists, will unlikely translate into improvements in the lives of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other minoritised groups.' 'Perhaps most immediately, shiny hotels and droves of tourists attempt to paint the picture that human rights abuses certainly cannot be occurring in such a 'happy' and 'thriving' place. Unfortunately, this strategy seems to have achieved some degree of success.'
