The Indian Panorama

Tag: US Senate

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

    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

     

  • US Senate Health Care Bill will cut back Medicaid expansion

    US Senate Health Care Bill will cut back Medicaid expansion

    WASHINGTON (TIP): A health care Bill unveiled by US Senate Republicans on June 22 is designed to roll back the Obamacare expansion of the Medicaid health care program for the poor and reshape subsidies to low-income people buying private insurance.

    Those subsidies are expected to be linked to recipients’ income, a “major improvement” from a health care overhaul Bill passed in the House of Representatives that tied them solely to age, Republican Senator Susan Collins said on Wednesday.

    The Washington Post reported that the Bill would also repeal most of the taxes that pay for the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, give states wider latitude to opt out of its regulations and eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a healthcare provider that offers abortion services.

    The health care Bill will be released to the Republican Senate Conference on Thursday morning and posted online, senators said. A vote could come as soon as next week, several senators said.

    Senate Republicans have been working behind closed doors for weeks on legislation aimed at repealing and replacing major portions of Obamacare, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.

    Obamacare extended insurance coverage to millions of Americans through both subsidized private insurance and an expansion of Medicaid.

    “There is an urgency to get this done because of the continued collapse of the Obama healthcare law,” Senator John Barrasso, a member of the Senate Republican leadership, told CNN. “People across the country are suffering pain and the pain is getting worse as insurance companies are pulling out.” Democrats accuse Republicans of sabotaging Obamacare, and say the Republican health care Bill is aimed at cutting taxes for the wealthy.

    Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington said in a statement that leaked details of the Bill indicated it was “every bit as devastating for families’ bank accounts and healthcare coverage as the disastrous bill that passed in the House.”

    President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans campaigned last year on a pledge to replace and repeal Obamacare, which they described as ineffective and government intrusion in a key sector of the economy.