The publication of the “Xinjiang Police Files” sent shock waves through the European Parliament. Fifteen days after the publication of more than 100,000 hacked Chinese police files entrusted to German anthropologist Adrian Zenz, which reveal the extent of the repression organized by Beijing in Xinjiang against the Uighurs, MEPs adopted on Thursday June 9, a resolution calling for a ban on the importation of products made using forced labor.
On the initiative of a motion carried by five political groups, including the S&D, which brings together Socialist and Democratic MPs, European parliamentarians first approved a text on the “human rights situation in Xinjiang” which recognizes in it the crimes against humanity committed by Beijing and the “serious risk of genocide”.
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), an association of Uighur exiles, issued a press release welcoming the vote of this “tenth Parliament to recognize the crimes against humanity and the risk of genocide committed against the Uighur people”. Like the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, France, among others, adopted similar texts on January 20, 2020. In its resolution, the National Assembly recognized “officially the violence perpetrated by the authorities [chinoises] against the Uighurs as constituting crimes against humanity and genocide”.
“A great victory”
In Strasbourg, Thursday, June 9, the Parliament then adopted its resolution asking the European Commission to fight against forced labor, in general, by banning the import of products made from it. This ban could drastically reduce the commercial outlets of the labor camps set up by Beijing in Xinjiang. The text asks that Brussels put in place “a new commercial device to ban products from forced labor in the European Union”.
After the vote, Dolkun Isa, president of the WUC, welcomed this measure and its timetable. It’s a “great victory”confirms Raphaël Glucksmann, MEP, fervent defender of the Uighur cause, especially since these resolutions were adopted at a “virtually unanimous” specific to “send a very demanding message to the European Commission”.
The method of controlling the import of products entering the European Union should be defined by September by the European Commission. At the borders, “in case of suspicion” manufacturing under the duress of forced labor, goods could “to be blocked”, explains Mr. Glucksmann. It would be up to the importers to prove that their cargo does not fall under it.
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