US prepares to block key imports from China's Xinjiang over use of forced labour

The United States is reportedly preparing to block the import of key products from China’s Xinjiang region after reports of the use of forced labour emerged. According to media reports, a formal announcement on the proposed bans, which include cotton and tomato products, was expected on September 8 but was postponed due to scheduling issues.

US President Donald Trump had signed “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020” into law which condemns gross human rights violations of the ethnic Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region in China. It is aimed at holding accountable perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses such as the systematic use of indoctrination camps, forced labour, and intrusive surveillance to eradicate the ethnic identity and religious beliefs of minorities.

China has repeatedly been accused of using prisoners and ethnic minorities in the so-called re-education camps. In December 2019, China denied the accusations of using prisoners for forced labour after a London schoolgirl found a message in a Christmas card, allegedly from inmates at Shanghai's Qingpu Prison. 

The message, as reported by a British daily, read that they were foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qinqpu prison and were forced to work against their will. They also urged to help, and notify the issue to human rights organisation. After the report surfaced, British supermarket suspended production at a Chinese factory where the message, supposed to be a cry for help, was claimed to be originated from.

Read: China's Xinjiang Region Forces Unproven Herbal Medicine On People Amid COVID-19

Read: Uyghur Diaspora In US Protests Against China's Human Rights Violation In Xinjiang

US sanctions

On July 9, the US State Department said that America will not stand idle as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) carries out human rights abuses targeting ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The department had announced sanctions on three senior Chinese officials and their families over gross human rights violations, banning their entry in the United States.

Several leaked documents from China have revealed Beijing’s brutal and systematic crackdown on Uighurs, in which they have called it a “struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism”. After Uighur militants stabbed more than 150 people at a train station in 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a series of speeches delivered to officials, urged the party to follow America’s policy of “war on terror”.

Read: China's Top Diplomat Forced To Concede Xinjiang Atrocities; Gives Outrageous 'education' Spin

Read: UN Urged By International Community To Probe Human Rights Violations In Xinjiang