Biden signs bill banning import from China's Xinjiang over forced labour

WASHINGTON: Amid worsening relations between Beijing and Washington, US President Joe Biden has signed a new bill that bans imports from China’s Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labour, the White House said.

Pushed by members of the United States Congress, the law passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate by unanimous votes earlier this month.

The Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act is part of the US pushback against Beijing’s treatment of China’s Uighur Muslim minority, which Washington has labelled genocide. Beijing has denied it has mistreated religious and ethnic minorities in the region.

Key to the legislation is a “rebuttable presumption” that assumes all goods from Xinjiang, where Beijing has established detention camps for Uighurs and other Muslim groups, are made with forced labour.

Some goods — such as cotton, tomatoes, and polysilicon used in solar-panel manufacturing — are designated “high priority” for enforcement action.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Biden’s approval of the law  underscored  the “United States’ commitment to combatting forced labour, 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 addressing forced labour in Xinjiang  and to strengthen international action against this egregious violation of human rights,” he added.

One of the bill’s co-authors, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, said it was necessary to “send a resounding and unequivocal message against genocide and slave labour.”

“Now we can finally ensure that American consumers and businesses can buy goods without inadvertent complicity in China’s horrific human rights abuses,” he said in a statement.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington has condemns and “firmly rejected” the new legislation. “The act ignores the truth and maliciously slanders the human rights situation in Xinjiang,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.

“This is a severe violation of international law and norms of international relations, and a gross interference in China’s internal affairs. China strongly condemns and firmly rejects it,” Pengyu said, adding Beijing would respond further in light of the development of the situation.