The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Rules passed two preliminary bills to restrict forced Uighur labor on July 21, and will send them to the House floor for a vote, possibly as early as tomorrow, underscoring the bipartisan urgency that U.S. lawmakers see for restricting forced labor in Xinjiang.
The two bills include the Forced Uighur Labor Prevention Act and the Forced Uighur Labor Disclosure Act, both sponsored by members of Congress across party lines. The former would ban the importation of all products from Xinjiang unless clear and convincing evidence is provided that there is no forced labor in the supply chain; the latter would require U.S. publicly traded companies that have factories in or do business with Xinjiang to disclose their supply chains.
These bills would hold perpetrators of forced labor accountable, ensure that goods made with forced labor do not enter the U.S. market, establish more stringent financial disclosure requirements, and help expose companies that use forced labor and their supply chains,” said Representative Jim McGovern (D-Md.), Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. “
McGovern said that consumers should have the right to know where the products they buy come from and whether forced labor is involved in Xinjiang. In March, McGovern co-sponsored the bill in both chambers of Congress with Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Republican Congressman Chris Smith, among a dozen other members from across party lines.
Smith, who appeared before the committee as a witness, said, “I think this part of the legislation will help all American companies not participate in any way in this horrible criminal activity.”
Rep. Tom Suozzi, another Democrat who attended the meeting, also emphasized that this bill would force China to realize that they cannot participate in the economy of the modern world in a way that persecutes human rights.
So far, the Prevention of Forced Uighur Labor Act has been co-sponsored by 67 members of the House of Representatives. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-N.Y.) also expressed support for both bills on July 18, saying, “If we refuse to speak out on human rights in China because of business interests, we will lose all moral authority to talk about human rights around the world.
Last week, China’s CCTV-affiliated China Global Television Network (CGTN) released a series of short documentaries promoting the example of people in Xinjiang who have moved to the interior to work in poverty, without mentioning the international controversy over forced labor in the region. In the U.S., however, a bill to prevent forced labor is a high priority and has passed out of a procedural committee and is headed to the House of Representatives, where it could pass a vote as soon as tomorrow. The efficiency of the procedures committee will allow the bill to move directly to the House floor, demonstrating the high level of concern for human rights issues in Xinjiang among U.S. lawmakers regardless of party affiliation.
The bill would give the U.S. government more enforcement power to restrict products that involve forced labor in Xinjiang, the WUC’s director of Chinese affairs, Eli Shatty, also told the station.
“Many companies in the Western world do not have clear judicial sanctions, so they continue to play deaf and dumb and make profits from forced labor. Once the bill is passed it will become law to be enforced and sanction any company that uses such forced labor products.”
The U.S. has recently been pressuring China on human rights issues in Xinjiang. Last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reissued a temporary seizure order against five companies in Xinjiang and Anhui producing cotton, apparel, hair and electronic goods.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has expressed support in press releases and on Twitter, saying that the action sends a clear message to China that it is time to end state-sponsored forced labor. In a speech at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, on December 20, he again focused on the mistreatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and criticized the Chinese authorities for persecuting Catholics and Muslims and for their ongoing attacks on religious beliefs.
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