# Forced Labor Forced labor encompasses situations in which individuals are coerced to work through threats, debt bondage, or state compulsion. The issue has gained significant geopolitical prominence through the documentation of Uyghur forced labor programs in [[China]]'s Xinjiang region, where the Chinese government has been accused of detaining over a million ethnic Uyghurs and subjecting them to compulsory labor in factories producing goods that enter global markets. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, signed into law in 2021, created a rebuttable presumption that goods from Xinjiang are produced with forced labor, effectively banning their import into the United States. This legislation reflects broader efforts to scrutinize [[Supply Chain]] integrity and decouple critical manufacturing from regions with documented human rights abuses. American corporations have faced pressure to audit their supply chains and demonstrate compliance. Domestically, the question of forced labor also intersects with the US prison system, where incarcerated individuals perform labor for minimal or no compensation under conditions critics describe as coercive. The convergence of international trade enforcement and domestic carceral labor debates makes forced labor a subject that bridges foreign policy hawkishness and domestic criminal justice reform.