A Statement of Support for Former C4ADS Analyst Nicole Morgret

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — On December 26, 2023, the Chinese government sanctioned former C4ADS analyst Nicole Morgret for her work exposing the corporate, financial, and trade networks behind Uyghur genocide in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China (XUAR). We are extremely proud of this work, and we remain committed to combating the illicit networks that perpetrate and facilitate human rights violations around the world, including in the Uyghur region.

The Chinese government is executing a campaign of human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples, including mass detention, religious persecution, intrusive surveillance, and forced labor. In response, C4ADS has analyzed, monitored, and reported on these crimes and the companies and systems behind them.  

We began this work in August 2021 with Long Shadows, our investigation into the sanctions evasion techniques that companies perpetrating forced labor and human rights abuses in XUAR use to remain enmeshed in global finance and trade. We followed that up with How Congress Can Act Against Uyghur Forced Labor, released just months before we officially launched our Human Security program.

C4ADS then harnessed that momentum to continue our work on Uyghur rights into 2022 with Everybody’s Business, an issue brief that mapped the contours of the Xinjiang agricultural and industrial sectors and identified nine goods that are produced in disproportionately high volumes in the Uyghur region. We shared our Shifting Gears report that same year, which exposed the system of industrial transfer in XUAR that supports forced labor and masks forced labor products as they enter global supply chains.

Most recently, we published Fractured Veins, in which we reveal how minerals from XUAR that are associated with forced labor and human rights abuse may be reaching global networks of finance and trade — including hundreds of Western companies and the index fund portfolios of several major asset management firms.

As the Chinese government continues to censor and intimidate open and free reporting on human rights and other critical issues, C4ADS stands with Nicole and by our work holding the CCP accountable for their actions. We remain steadfast in our commitment to defeating the illicit and malign networks around the world that threaten global peace and security.

For additional information about our work supporting Uyghur rights in XUAR and abroad, please visit the “Human Security” or “China” initiative pages on our website or contact us at [email protected].