US lawmakers seek Xinjiang import ban over forced labour

Washington, March 12

Lawmakers in Washington have proposed a ban on most imports from China’s Xinjiang region, charging that goods produced by Uighur forced labourers were easily making their way into the United States.

The US already bans products made through slavery, but with rights groups saying as many as one million Uighurs and other minorities are held in camps in Xinjiang, lawmakers said forced labour was interwoven into the region’s economy.

“These practices in Xinjiang are one of the world’s largest human tragedies. It remains unimaginable, frankly, that this is happening in 2020,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican sponsor of the bipartisan measure, told reporters on Wednesday.

Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat who leads the Congressional-Executive Commission on China — which looks at human rights — said that witnesses, surveillance photos and leaked documents all showed the existence of forced labour.

“We know that many US, international and Chinese companies are complicit in the exploitation of forced labor involving Uighurs and other Muslim minorities,” McGovern said. “Audits of supply chains are simply not possible because forced labor is so pervasive within the regional economy,” he said.

The act would ban the import of any goods from Xinjiang unless US Customs and Border Protection has “clear and convincing evidence” that no forced labor was involved.

Uighur activists say that China is conducting a massive brainwashing campaign in internment camps aimed at eradicating their culture.

Beijing says the camps are “vocational education centers” teaching Mandarin and job skills to steer “students” away from religious extremism.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said at a regular press briefing Thursday that the US should “stop using the human rights issue to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”

The commission also released an accompanying report Wednesday said it had seen “credible reports” that goods involving forced labour have come into the United States, including textiles, cell phones, computer hardware, shoes and tea.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized China’s treatment of minorities Wednesday as he released the State Department’s annual report on human rights. — AFP