China’s new cotton law deepens control over Uyghur farmers’ land and labor

A regulation effective July 1, 2026, called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Regulations on Promoting Cotton Quality now requires full traceability of cotton production, from the specific farmer and plot of land through processing, storage and sale. Records must be kept five years, and every bale must carry barcode data on grade, quantity and processing history.

The law arrives atop a 2018 land policy that moved management rights for farmland into cooperatives and companies while formally leaving contracting rights with households — with Communist Party organizations installed inside the entities managing the transferred land. State media reports cited in the piece describe transfer payments of about 650 yuan per mu and mechanization that let one person manage up to 200 mu instead of 30 to 50.

The Chinese government frames the regulation around 'high-quality development' and supply-chain stability. UN human rights experts have warned the underlying land and labor transfer system may cause irreparable harm to Uyghur and other Indigenous communities, and the new law does not address longstanding reports of forced cotton-picking labor.

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