Australia must stand up to China's bullying and call out the superpower's widespread use of forced Uighur labour, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.
Every Uighur in Australia has suffered the anguish of having relatives imprisoned or go missing over the past five years, Australian Uighur community representatives told the hearing on Tuesday.
"Genocide is unquestionable and is happening as we speak," Uighur Association of Victoria president Alim Osman said.
The foreign affairs, defence and trade committee is considering an import ban on goods produced using Uighur forced labour, under proposed laws put forward by independent senator Rex Patrick.
Australian Uighur Tangritagh Women's Association president Ramila Chanisheff said people were afraid of speaking up about relatives being forcibly coerced, separated from their children and sent to mass labour camps.
She said China was bullying countries like Australia not to speak up and slapping them with harsh tariffs.
Committee chair Eric Abetz slammed Australian National University academic Jane Golley's plans to "debunk" reports of one million Uighur Muslims working in concentration camps in Xinjiang province.
Professor Golley has downplayed reports about Xinjiang and last week spoke about a paper she received "anonymously" that suggested Uighur female sterilisation should be regarded as family planning.
She heads the ANU's taxpayer-funded Australian Centre on China in the World.
"Golly gosh", Senator Abetz said, calling out her naivety in the face of "overwhelming evidence".
"It now sheds a light onto other criticisms of other people who have sought to highlight human rights abuses in China."
Dr Darren Byler, a researcher at the University of Colorado, said Professor Golley's advocacy was an example of the "seeding of doubt or disinformation" by China.
He gave evidence of Uighurs being placed on a "trustworthy" list if they used "long-term birth control".
East Turkistan Australian Association president and immigration lawyer Nurmuhammad Majid has had two sisters imprisoned for more than 10 years, two brothers taken to an unknown location, and 58 people in his extended family lost since 2016.
"Australia has not made any significant contribution to stop the atrocities against Uighur people," he said.
"Australia is now being the victim of China's economic expansion policy."
Mr Majid said Australian Uighurs have also been wrongly listed as terrorists by China for sending money to family members and 14 people - including children - have been prevented from returning to families here despite having visas.
Analyst Vicky Xu said the Chinese government regards any investigation of labour conditions of Uighur workers as "crossing a red line".
She co-authored the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's report last year that found more than 80,000 people were transferred out of Xinjiang to work in factories across China between 2017 and 2019.
In conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uighurs and other minorities were working in factories linked to almost 100 global brands in the technology, clothing and vehicle sectors.
Mr Majid said China had established a massive cotton production facilities where Uighurs worked 18-hour days for less than 10 cents an hour.
Several witnesses told the committee Australian slave labour laws fell short of what was required.
