US House passes bill to ban imports made by Xinjiang forced labour

Name: US declares China has committed genocide in its treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang
Uploaded: 2021-12-08T23:56:16.000Z
Duration: 2 min 27 s
Description: US declares China has committed genocide in its treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang

The bill, which has broad, bipartisan support, now returns to the Senate, but its immediate path to becoming law is unclear

The measure creates a ‘rebuttable presumption’ that all goods partially or wholly produced in Xinjiang are tainted by forced labour

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Demonstrators in front of the White House protest against Chinese treatment of Uygurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Photo: AFP

Owen Churchill

Published: 7:56am, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 8:18am, 9 Dec 2021

The US House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved forced labour legislation that would ban the importation of goods sourced in China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. But while the bill has broad, bipartisan support, its immediate pathway to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature remains unclear.

The bill, called the Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act, creates a “rebuttable presumption” that all goods partially or wholly produced in Xinjiang are tainted by forced labour, and therefore ineligible for import. Companies would have the option to appeal if they can produce “clear and convincing evidence” that their supply chains are free of forced labour.

The House voted 428-1 to advance the bill, with a Republican lawmaker issuing the sole dissenting vote. It was the second time the chamber had approved the measure, after House members agreed to the legislation in 2020 before it was wiped off the docket when the new Congress was sworn in on January 3.

Also passed by a similar majority on Wednesday was a non-binding resolution saying that China’s crackdown on Uygurs and other ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang amounted to “genocide”. That determination echoes the official position of the US executive branch, as well as a number of other legislatures around the world, including those of Canada, Britain and Lithuania.

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US declares China has committed genocide in its treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang

The House also unanimously passed a resolution accusing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of helping Beijing cover up sexual assault allegations against former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli by Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai.