Biden Signs Bill Banning Goods From China's Xinjiang Over Forced Labour

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Biden Signs Bill Banning Goods From China's Xinjiang Over Forced Labour

US President Joe Biden on December 23 signed into law legislation that bans imports from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labour, the White House said, provoking an angry Chinese condemnation. The Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act is part of the US pushback against Beijing's treatment of the China's Uighur Muslim minority, which Washington has labeled genocide. The bill passed Congress this month after lawmakers reached a compromise between House and Senate versions. 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. It bars imports unless it can be proven otherwise. Some goods — such as cotton, tomatoes, and polysilicon used in solar-panel manufacturing — are designated "high priority" for enforcement action. China denies abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer. Its Washington embassy said the act "ignores the truth and maliciously slanders the human rights situation in Xinjiang”. "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," embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in an emailed statement. He said China "would respond further in light of the development of the situation," but did not elaborate. The US Customs and Border Protection agency estimated then that about US$ 9 billion of cotton products and US$ 10 million of tomato products were imported from China in the past year.