The United States announced on Friday, November 22, that it had once again expanded its blacklist prohibiting the import of products from the Chinese region of Xinjiang or suspected of having been manufactured using the forced labor of Uyghurs.
About thirty new Chinese companies are accused of using raw materials or spare parts manufactured or collected through forced labor by Uyghurs or of having used this labor themselves to manufacture their products. This addition brings to a total of 107 the number of companies that are now prohibited from exporting to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security announced.
“By adding these entities, the government continues to demonstrate its determination to ensure that products made with the forced labor of Uyghurs or other ethnic or religious minorities in Xingjiang do not enter the United States.”estimated the White House trade representative, Katherine Tai, quoted in the press release.
In a separate statement, members of the parliamentary committee on the activities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) said “Delighted with this additional step”believing that American companies “We should completely cut ties with CCP-linked companies and develop a supply chain free of forced labor”.
A prevention law of the American Congress
US authorities, as well as several other Western countries, have condemned the massive practice of forced labor carried out by the Chinese government against the Uyghur minority, further considering that their treatment amounted to “genocide”which Beijing categorically denies.
According to human rights groups, at least one million people, mainly from this Muslim minority, have been imprisoned in the Xinjiang region and are victims of abuses, including forced sterilization of women and forced labor.
The Prevention Act, passed by the US Congress in December 2021, prohibits all imports of products from Xinjiang unless companies in the region can demonstrate that their production did not include forced labor.
