US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a law banning imports from China’s Xinjiang region because of concerns about forced labor, the White House said, prompting China’s condemnation of the measure.
The Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act is part of the US reaction against Beijing’s treatment of China’s Uighur Muslim minority, which Washington has labeled genocide.
The bill passed Congress this month after lawmakers reached an agreement between the House and Senate versions.
Key to the legislation is a “refutable presumption” that assumes that all goods in Xinjiang, where Beijing has established detention camps for Uighurs and other Muslim groups, are made with forced labor. The text prohibits imports unless it can be proven otherwise.
Some products – such as cotton, tomatoes and polysilicon used in the manufacture of solar panels – are designated as “high priority” for inspection. China denies abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer that also supplies much of the world’s materials for solar panels.
China’s embassy in Washington said the act “ignores the truth and maliciously slanders the human rights situation in Xinjiang.”
“This is a serious violation of international law and international relations norms and a major interference in China’s internal affairs. China strongly condemns and firmly rejects it,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said in an e-mailed statement.
He said China “would respond more in light of the development of the situation” but did not elaborate further. In a statement on Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry expressed its “strong indignation and resolute opposition” to the legislation.
“The allegations of ‘forced labor’ and ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang are nothing but perverse lies promoted by anti-China forces,” the statement said.
The United States is engaging in “political manipulation and economic intimidation under the guise of human rights” and is trying to “undermine the prosperity and stability of Xinjiang and contain China’s development,” the document added.
Nury Turkel, Uighur American vice president of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, told Reuters this month that the bill’s effectiveness would depend on the Biden government’s willingness to ensure it is effective, especially when companies seek waivers.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Biden’s passage of the law underscores the “US commitment to combating forced labor, including in the context of the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang.”
“The State Department is committed to working with Congress and our interagency partners to continue to combat forced labor in Xinjiang and strengthen international action against this blatant violation of human rights,” he said in a statement.
One of the bill’s co-authors, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, said it was necessary to “send a resounding and unambiguous message against genocide and slave labor.”
“Now … we can finally ensure that American consumers and businesses can buy products without inadvertent complicity in China’s horrific human rights abuses,” he said in a statement.
In its final days in January, the Trump government announced a ban on all cotton and tomato products in Xinjiang.
The US Customs and Border Protection agency then estimated that about $9 billion worth of cotton products and $10 million worth of tomato products were imported from China last year.
Additional reporting by Yong Xiong from CNN.
This content was originally created in English.
original version
Reference: CNN Brasil
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