No forced cotton production labor in Xinjiang: lawmaker

A joint video promotion event for Xinjiang with the Chinese embassy in Britain is held in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 26, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Lei)

URUMQI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- There was and is no forced labor in cotton production in Xinjiang, said Li Xuejun, a senior regional lawmaker on Friday.

Li, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said this at a joint video promotion event for Xinjiang with the Chinese embassy in Britain.

He said that cotton production in Xinjiang has already achieved a high degree of mechanization. There is not a large number of cotton-picking workers even in the busy picking season.

Li noted that cotton enterprises in Xinjiang are legally registered and operate according to laws and regulations. Workers' rights to payment, rest, culture, welfare, and others are fully guaranteed, he said. 

Photo taken on Oct. 17, 2020 shows a machine harvesting cotton in a field in Wenjiazhuang Village, Manasi County of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Ding Lei)

An employee works at a cotton factory in Manasi County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Oct. 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Lei)

Aerial photo taken on Oct. 17, 2020 shows a machine harvesting cotton in a field in Wenjiazhuang Village, Manasi County of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Ding Lei)