US Bill to ban Xinjiang imports passes Congress

WASHINGTON • The United States Senate has passed legislation to ban imports from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labour, part of Washington's continued pushback against Beijing's treatment of the country's Uighur Muslim minority.

The Senate passed the Uighur Forced Labour Prevention Act by unanimous consent on Thursday, sending it to the White House, where President Joe Biden has said he will sign it into law. The House of Representatives passed the Bill with a unanimous voice vote on Tuesday.

The measure was rushed through Congress this week after lawmakers agreed on a compromise that eliminated differences between Bills introduced in the House and Senate.

Republicans and Democrats in the two chambers have been arguing over the Uighur legislation for months. The dispute complicated passage of the annual National Defence Authorisation Act and has held up the Senate's confirmation of some of Mr Biden's ambassadorial nominees, including his selection of Mr Nicholas Burns to be ambassador to China.

The compromise legislation keeps a provision creating a "rebuttable presumption" that all goods from Xinjiang were made with forced labour, in order to bar such imports.

"It is a horrifying human rights situation, fully sanctioned, as we now know, by the Communist Party of China," Republican Senator Marco Rubio said, urging senators to vote for the Bill.

China denies abuses in Xinjiang, which supplies much of the world's materials for solar panels, but the US government and many rights groups say Beijing is carrying out genocide there.

Mr Nury Turkel, a Uighur American who serves as vice-chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said the Bill's effectiveness would depend on the willingness of the Biden administration to ensure it is effective, especially when companies ask for waivers.

"The possibility of it not being fully implemented is one of my major concerns," he told Reuters.

In a related development on Thursday, the US government hit dozens of Chinese companies, including top drone-maker DJI, with investment and export restrictions, accusing them of complicity in the oppression of Uighurs or of helping the military.

The Chinese embassy in Washington called the actions "unwarranted suppression" that violated free trade rules, adding that Beijing would take "all essential measures" to uphold the interests of Chinese firms and research institutions.

"China's development of biotechnology has always been for the well-being of mankind. The relevant claims of the US side are totally groundless," embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said in an e-mail.

REUTERS