US Senate passes bill to ban most imports from China’s Xinjiang over rights abuses

WASHINGTON (TIP): The U.S. Senate passed on Wednesday, July 14, a bill to ban imports from China‘s Xinjiang region. Several human rights groups, media outlets, and national governments have accused China of committing human rights abuses against the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority group in the region.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act works on the presumption that all goods from Xinjiang were produced using forced labor unless proven otherwise. Imported products from the region would have to be certified as not being made with forced labor.1

The legislation would also require the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of entities that support or otherwise work with the Chinese government in oppressing Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

The bill will go to the House, and if passed, to the President’s desk.

The U.S. previously banned the imports of cotton and tomatoes grown in Xinjiang. The region produces about one-fifth of the world’s cotton supply.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has blacklisted several Chinese entities over their alleged involvement in abuses in Xinjiang.2

Earlier in July, French prosecutors opened a “crimes against humanity” investigation into four fashion brands accused of profiting from forced labor in Xinjiang.3

U.S. SENATOR

‘Won’t let corporations profit from rights abuses’

“We will not turn a blind eye to the CCP’s ongoing crimes against humanity, and we will not allow corporations a free pass to profit from these horrific abuses,” said Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), referring to the Chinese Communist Party.4

CHINA

US action will drive Xinjiang’s people into poverty

“The accusation of ‘forced labor’ is a sheer lie. The true intention of the U.S. moves to hype up this issue is to undermine Xinjiang’s prosperity and stability and deprive the people in Xinjiang of the right to subsistence, employment and development. What the U.S. has done amounts to forced unemployment and forced poverty. It fully reveals the sinister intention of the U.S. to use Xinjiang to contain China,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian.5

 

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