Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - China (Ratification: 2022)

Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

The Committee notes the report of the Government providing a detailed overview of the laws and regulations aimed at giving effect to the Convention.

Article 1(1). Constitutional duty to work. The Committee notes that in accordance with Article 42 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, citizens have the right as well as the duty to work; that work is the glorious duty of every able-bodied citizen; and that the state encourages citizens to take part in voluntary labour. The Committee recalls that a general statement of principle which establishes a moral duty does not affect the application of the Convention. However, a constitutional provision expressing a duty to work should not give rise to the regulatory framework at any level creating a legal obligation, enforceable with sanctions, for able-bodied citizens to engage in a gainful occupation. The Committee requests the Government to provide any judicial or administrative interpretations of Article 42 confirming the exclusively moral nature of the constitutional duty to work, particularly in the light of comments below concerning possible legal obligations placed upon particular categories of workers to provide services.

Article 2(1). Freedom of certain categories of workers to leave their service. As part of its examination of the application of the Convention, the Committee reviews legislative provisions imposing restrictions on certain persons to resign (such as civil servants, career army officers, police officers or navy personnel) or terminate their employment relationship subject to giving a minimum period of notice. In this regard, the Committee notes the following provisions:

• section 81 of the Civil Servants Law of the People's Republic of China (2005) which when read together with Article 6 of the Regulations on the Grading of Newly Recruited Civil Servants (2008) appear to prohibit civil servants from resigning from public office before the completion of five years of service, including the probationary period;
• sections 12 and 17 of the Regulations on the Personnel Management of Public Institutions (2014), which appear to suggest a minimum period of service of not less than 3 years of employees of public institutions;
• section 23 of the Regulations on Seafarers (2007) prohibiting the captain and officers of a ship to resign from their duties on their own initiative during the voyage;
• section 21(9) of the Measures for the Management of Fishery Crew (2014 prohibiting fishers to resign from their duties on their own initiative during the voyage;
• sections 43–45 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Active-Duty Military Officers (1988) which provide the minimum number of years of active service for military, political, logistical, and armament officers in peacetime;
• paragraph 3 of the Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on the implementation of the 2020 Special Plan for Teachers in Remote and Impoverished Areas, Border Ethnic Areas, and Old Revolutionary Base Areas (2020) which appears to prescribe a minimum period of one year for supportive teachers in remote areas with encouragement to continue service.

The Committee requests the Government to indicate if any restrictions to terminate service or employment relationship referred to above remain in force or have been superseded or repealed and, if not, the measures it envisages to take with a view to ensuring adequate protection of these workers with regard to terminating their employment by means of notice of reasonable length, including their right to have recourse to the courts, if necessary.

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Vulnerable situation heightening the risk of forced labour among certain categories of workers. The Committee notes that in accordance with Article 2 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Labor Dispute Cases (I) (2020) disputes over work-related claims by domestic workers, apprentices, and employees of small-scale agricultural businesses (农村承包经营户) fall outside the scope of the labour arbitration system. The Committee requests the Government, considering these categories of workers are at particular risk of forced labour, to indicate the measures taken to provide protection against the threat of forced labour and the remedies available to them in that regard, in particular access to judicial mechanisms. It also requests the Government to provide information on the role of labour inspection services and trade unions in eliminating forced labour, referred to in the Government’s report, including statistical data of forced labour detected, prosecutions initiated and penalties imposed.

Articles 1(1) and 2(2)(c). Prisoners’ labour. The Committee notes Articles 4, 69, 70 and 71 of the Prison Law (2012) according to which all able-bodied persons convicted by the court system in accordance with the Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law are under a legal obligation to work. It further notes various local regulations governing the work performance and labour protections of prisoners and the duties of authorities in charge of supervising the state-owned assets of prison enterprises, such as the Guangdong Provincial Measures for the Administration of Labor Quotas and Labor Remuneration for Prison Convicts (2008), the Shanghai Municipal Prison Administration Bureau Prison Affairs Open Manual and the Provisions on the Administration of Labour Remuneration for Convicts (2020). As the Committee has noted in its general observation of 1999, the Convention's general prohibition of the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms -- by which is meant all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily - does not apply to any work or service exacted as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law, provided that it is carried out under the supervision and control of a public authority and the person is not hired to or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations. The Committee requests the Government to include in its next report information as to the present situation in law and practice as regards the eight specific questions regarding hiring prison labour to private parties or placing it at their disposal raised in its general observation of 1999.

Articles 1(1) and 2(2)(c). Compulsory work in detention centres (拘留所). The Committee notes the Law on Public Security Administration Penalties (2005), which provides a legal basis for administrative sanctions by public security authorities in circumstances where public safety is endangered, personal rights or property rights are violated, or social management is obstructed but the severity of the offence is not considered sufficient for criminal punishment (Article 2). It observes that the Law stipulates the administrative sanctions that may be imposed for a wide range of “minor offences” such as forcing others to work by violence, threats, or other means (Article 40(2)). It further notes that Article 63 of the Measures for the Implementation of the Regulation on Detention Facilities provides that detention centres (拘留所) may organize appropriate labour education or vocational skills training for detainees within the facility, on the premise of ensuring safety and the detainees' voluntary consent. Detention facilities must not force or covertly force detainees to engage in productive labour. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the guarantees for obtaining voluntary consent and, where needed, remedies available to persons claiming to have been subject to forced labour in administrative detention. Information is also requested on the application in practice of Article 40(2) of the Law, in particular the criteria used by public security authorities to distinguish between forced labour as a “minor offence” and as a “criminal offence”, which Article 244 of the Criminal Law makes punishable with a fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and concurrently or independently with a fine.

Articles 1(1) and 2(2)(c). Compulsory work in remand centres (看守所). The Committee notes Article 2 of the Regulations on Remand Centres (1990) according to which the public security authorities also supervise remand centres (看守所) where they may detain persons under criminal investigation or criminal prosecution (pre-trial detention) and offenders who have been sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of less than one year, or whose remaining sentence is less than one year, when it is impractical for them to be sent to labour reform facilities for the execution of their sentences. Persons in the pre-trial phase may be detained for a maximum of 37 days which may be extended. Articles 33 and 34 authorize remand centres to “provide prisoners with labour education” and organize them to perform appropriate labour provided “strict procedures” guarantee their income and expenditure. The Code of Conduct for Detainees in Detention Centers stipulate, among other instructions, that detainees must complete labour tasks with quality and quantity and observe labour discipline (Articles 34 to 40). The Committee recalls that the Convention does not permit compulsory labour of persons who have not been duly convicted by a court of law. It also notes that UN Committee against Torture has called on the Government to reduce the 37-day maximum period of police custody and ensure, in law and in practice, that detained persons are promptly brought before a judge within a time limit in accordance with international standards, which should not exceed 48 hours. The Committee understands that a draft Law on Criminal Detention Centres has been under consideration by the National Peoples’ Congress since 2014 and requests the Government to indicate if it intends to pursue this legal reform to bring law and practice in line with the Convention. It also requests information as to whether offenders serving a sentence of less than 1 year are subject to the same rules as persons detained in the pre-trial phase and whether either category may be hired or put at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations.

Articles 1(1) and 2(2)(c). Compulsory work for rehabilitation purposes in compulsory drug dependency treatment. The Committee notes the Anti-Narcotics Law (2007), which provides for compulsory isolated rehabilitation for persons with drug dependence who have refused to receive community-based rehabilitation or have failed to maintain abstinence in the community, or have been arrested for suffering from a severe drug dependency disorder. According to Article 43 of the Law rehabilitation centers may organize productive labour for persons receiving treatment, provided such labour is remunerated, as well as organize vocational skills training. According to Article 59 of the Measures for the Administration of Compulsory Isolation and Detoxification Centers by Public Security Authorities, the rehabilitation centers must take into account while organizing productive labour, the needs of drug rehabilitation; the physical condition of the person receiving treatment; and a maximum of six hours of work per day. Persons receiving treatment must not be forced to participate in labour. The Committee requests the Government, in the light of the fact that compulsory isolated rehabilitation appears to involve detention based on a decision by public security authorities rather than a court of law, to indicate in its next report the guarantees available in practice to persons receiving treatment to ensure their participation in productive labour is genuinely free and if the Government would consider to include the administrative prohibition of forced labour in the Law rather than in the administrative measures considering it concerns a fundamental principle and right at work.

Article 2(2)(a) of the Convention. Compulsory military service. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that according to the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Military Service Law, the conscription system is geared solely towards military purposes. The Committee requests the Government to provide specific information on the types of work that may be assigned to them.

[The Government is asked to reply in full to the present comments in 2025 .]

Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

The Committee welcomes the timely first report presented by the Government and the detailed information on the comprehensive legal and regulatory framework developed in the last few decades to suppress all forms of forced labour. It welcomes the significant efforts made at strengthening the national law and practice to combat various forms of forced labour in this period of time with the technical assistance intermittently provided by the Office since 2003. The Committee recognizes in particular the progress China has been making in that period towards the effective application of the Convention in preparing for its ratification, notably the adoption of the Labour Contracts Law (2007), which has formalized employment relationships reducing the vulnerability of workers to forced labour and has introduced specific provisions supporting the prevention or prohibition of forced labour; the abolition of “re-education through labour” (劳动敎养) in 2013; the amendment of article 241, paragraph 6, of the Criminal Law in 2015 to criminalize any act of buying women and children who are victims of trafficking; the abolition of the “custody and education” (收容教育) system for sex workers and their clients in 2019; the gradual strengthening of penal sanctions for perpetrators of forced labour in the Criminal Law; the ratification of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in 2010; the determination to investigate administrative, civil and criminal liability associated with forced labour, combat cyber-facilitated trafficking in persons crimes and improving labour recruitment procedures in China’s Action Plan against Human Trafficking (2021–2030) approved by the State Council in 2021; and the Administrative Provisions on Internships for Vocational School Students approved by nine ministries in 2021 and strengthened protection of students in section 50 of the Vocational Education Law (2023).

Article 1(1) of the Convention. Forced or compulsory labour of ethnic and religious minorities. The Committee notes the observations made by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), received on 18 September 2024, aspects of which have been the subject of its examination of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), in 2021 and 2022 – and that of the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards in 2022 – as well as of its past and current examination of the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122). In its latest observations, the ITUC alleges widespread and state-sponsored forced labour practices in both the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) and the Tibet Autonomous Region (Tibet). According to the ITUC, two major systems of coercive work placement coexist in Xinjiang. Firstly, a system of arbitrary detention for Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities suspected of endangering social stability and national security (the “Vocational Skills Training and Education Centers” or VSTEC system) which since 2020 has been replaced with institutionalized long-term detention in regular prisons following a formal legal process, notably of prominent intellectuals and continued forced placement of “released” detainees in labour-intensive industries such as textiles and electronics. Secondly, a system of transferring “surplus” rural workers from low-income traditional livelihoods pursuits into industries such as the processing of raw materials for the production of solar panels, batteries and other vehicle parts; seasonal agricultural work; and seafood processing. In recent years, based on an intensified campaign of investigating and monitoring the poverty status of millions of rural households, the authorities had raised targets leading to increased cross-provincial labour transfers. At the same time, local authorities had “actively guided” ethnic smallholder farmers to transfer their agricultural plots to large state-led cooperatives, thus “liberating” “surplus” rural workers for transfer into manufacturing or the service sector. The ITUC alleges that in the last decade, similar policies have been pursued in the Tibet Autonomous Region (Tibet). These policies would apply coercive methods such as military-style vocational training methods and the involvement of political cadres to have Tibetan nomads and farmers swap their traditional livelihoods for jobs providing measurable cash income in industries such as road construction, mining or food-processing, thereby diluting “the negative influence of religion”. Placement incentives to local labour brokers and companies had facilitated a gradual increase in the labour transfer of rural workers to reach 630,000 workers in 2024. The Committee requests the Government to provide its detailed comments in reply to these observations from the ITUC.

The Committee notes the reports of various UN human rights mechanisms in recent years examining similar allegations while welcoming the ratification of Conventions Nos 29 and 105. In 2022, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) under its Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure called for an immediate investigation of all allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang, including those of forced labour. In 2023, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) expressed concern regarding the employment situation of Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Hui and Turkic-speaking peoples, as well as other ethnic minorities in China, particularly Muslim minorities, that provides numerous indications of coercive measures, including forced labour (E/C.12/CHN/CO/3). In 2023, the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women expressed concern about reports that “labour transfer” and “vocational training” programmes in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China relegated Tibetan women to training in low-skilled jobs and disregarded their unique skills; and about reports of coercive employment measures against Uyghur women, including forced labour, in addition to sexual violence in vocational education and training centres for Uyghur women. Various mandates of the UN Human Rights Council have on several occasions received information that appear to support the allegations currently before the Committee.

The Committee further recalls its own previous comments and those of the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards in respect of the application by China of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111). In these comments, it had expressed deep concern in respect of serious allegations of discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang, based on policy guidelines expressed in numerous national and regional policy and regulatory documents. In particular, it had noted the broadly worded definition of extremism in the Xinjiang Regulation on Deradicalization (XRD), supported by indicators (“primary expressions of radicalization”) that might otherwise be construed as matters of personal choice and legitimate religious practice. It had noted the extensive digital and personal surveillance apparatus in Xinjiang and the regulatory potential for administrative detention of suspected extremists. In its comments on the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122), it had further noted various indicators suggesting the presence of a “labour transfer policy” using measures severely restricting the free choice of employment based on the Government’s references to significant numbers of “surplus rural labour” being “relocated” to industrial and agricultural employment sites located inside and outside Xinjiang under “structured conditions” of “labour management”. In this context, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged, both in law and in practice, to amend national and regional regulatory provisions with a view to revising its deradicalization and employment policies in a manner that does not cause ethnic and religious minorities to fall victim to forced or compulsory labour.

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Vulnerable situation of foreign migrants with regard to the exaction of forced labour. The Committee notes a report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR, 2024) highlighting several ILO forced labour indicators suggesting forced labour practices involving overseas workers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including in China. The report refers to DPRK nationals working overseas in a coercive and exploitative environment buttressed by the threat of repatriation if they do not perform well enough or commit infractions. Also in 2024, various mandates of the UN Human Rights Council requested further information about investigations into the situation of girls and women from the DPRK that have been trafficked for the purposes of forced marriage, sexual exploitation, forced labour and domestic servitude. The Committee recalls that ratifying States must suppress all forms of forced labour occurring within their territory or jurisdiction. The Committee requests the Government to undertake efforts to prevent foreign migrants from falling victim to abusive practices and conditions that amount to the exaction of forced labour and to ensure their access to justice and remedies. The Committee also requests the Government to supply information on the number of identified victims of abusive practices among migrant workers, and on the number of investigations, prosecutions and penalties imposed on the perpetrators.

The Committee is raising further questions in a request addressed directly to the Government, noting in particular that full application of the Convention requires legal and regulatory provisions adopted at all administrative levels (i.e. national, provincial, municipal, prefectural, county and township levels) to be in accordance with the provisions of the Convention.

[The Government is asked to reply in full to the present comments in 2025.]