US Congress passes bill barring goods produced by forced labor in Xinjiang — Radio Free Asia

The U.S. Congress on Wednesday passed legislation banning the entry into the United States of goods produced by required labor in northwestern Chinas Xinjiang region, underscoring U.S. opposition to Chinese policies targeting ethnic Uyghurs.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act when signed into law will block the importing of products produced by required labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The measure will likewise license sanctions on foreign people and entities found responsible for serious human rights abuses in connection with required labor in Xinjiang.
Passed in the House of Representatives by a bulk of 428 to 1 in a bipartisan vote, the legislation had earlier cleared the Senate all on July 15, and your home expense will need to be fixed up with the Senate bill prior to being sent to President Biden for signing into law.
International rights groups quickly invited passage of the Act, with Dolkun Isa– president of the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress– calling for prompt action to sign the legislation into law.
” We hope President Biden indications the UFLPA into law in the shortest possible time, since this piece of legislation is of historical value to stop Chinas genocide versus the Uyghurs,” Isa stated.
” This is a historic day for the Uyghur people,” Isa included.
Congress on Wednesday also passed a resolution formally recognizing Chinas treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide, a position taken this year by the U.S. State Department and the legislatures of numerous European nations.
Likewise passed was a resolution condemning the International Olympic Committee for endorsing the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Lithuania have all announced diplomatic boycotts of the 2022 Games in Beijing, saying that while these countries athletes will be permitted to contend, no government ministers or other main representatives will be sent to participate in.
Modern day slavery
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms vice chair Nury Turkel revealed his appreciation for the Congresss “bicameral and bipartisan support for the efforts to end the enslavement of Uyghurs and others in China.”
” In a liberal worldwide order, there can be no room for forced labor that amounts to contemporary slavery which must surprise the conscience of consumers, policy makers and magnate.”
” We should not compromise Uyghurs lives for service interests or our addiction to inexpensive durable goods,” Turkel stated, keeping in mind that more work now needs to be done to complete details of the required labor costs prior to it goes to the president for finalizing.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a statement ahead of Wednesdays vote stated the legislation being considered on the floor sends a “direct and clear message” to Beijing.
” The United States Congress, on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, stands joined in requiring that individualss Republic of China be held responsible and immediately stop its human rights abuses: from its genocide against the Uyghurs, to its long project of repression against the Tibetan people and to its assault on basic flexibilities in Hong Kong and on the mainland.”
” As House Speaker, I praise the Presidents management with the White House statement that there will be no main U.S. diplomatic presence at the 2022 Winter Olympics,” Pelosi said.
Since 2017, China has held as numerous as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a network of detention camps that Beijing claims are occupation training centers.
The camps are the center of a campaign of repression that also includes enforced contraception and forced labor and has actually drawn charges of genocide and crimes versus mankind in the West. China turns down the accusations.
Previously this year, Washington, mentioning issues about required labor, tightened up analysis and import controls on Chinese firms that produce solar-panel product, wigs, electronic devices, tomatoes, and cotton with suspected forced Uyghur labor.
Reported and translated by RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.
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