Jan Švec published an article in the prestigious academic journal Central Asian Survey

In April 2022, our colleague from the Center for Asian Studies and the Department of International Studies and Diplomacy (KMSD),  Ing. Bc.  Jan Švec published an impacted article in the prestigious academic journal Central Asian Survey (published by Taylor Francis Online), entitled “Labor transfers as a means of ‘civilizing’ and forcibly assimilating ethnic minorities in western China”.

Abstract: „The article provides supporting evidence of organized labour transfers of Turkic minorities, primarily Uyghurs, from Xinjiang to other regions in China. From a theoretical point of view, the article places these transfers in the context of the efforts by China’s authorities to ‘civilize’ and forcibly assimilate ethnic minorities, reminiscent of ‘civilizing missions’ carried out by colonizing nations in the past. The article presents an analysis of official Chinese documents and media reports and a content analysis of almost 80 unofficial online posts ‘offering’ ethnic minority labourers. The analysis reveals that at least 60,000 labourers could be ‘offered’ for transfers outside Xinjiang in the course of 2020 alone, thus suggesting that the scope of transfers has significantly intensified.“

Ing. Bc. Jan Švec is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of International Studies and Diplomacy (formerly the Department of Political Science) at the Faculty of International Relations. He graduated from the same faculty with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Diplomacy, a master’s degree in Political Science, and a minor in Chinese Studies. He is interested in China and the countries of the post-Soviet region. He completed semester-long internships at the universities of Vladivostok, Beijing, and Hangzhou. He studies Chinese, from which he obtained the HSK 5 certificate. In his research, he focuses on the use of modern information and communication technologies as tools to strengthen authoritarianism.