The US House of Representatives on Wednesday (December 8) adopted legislation restricting imports of products made in Xinjiang. It is for the elected officials to condemn the ” forced labor “ of the Uighur Muslim minority in this region of northwest China, against a backdrop of escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Members of the lower house of Congress voted 428 to 1 for the text that calls on companies to demonstrate “With clear and convincing evidence” that no goods imported from this region were manufactured by forced labor.
“At the moment, Beijing is orchestrating a campaign of brutal and accelerated repression against the Uighur people and other Muslim minorities”House of Representatives Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of the vote.
“In Xinjiang and across China, millions of people suffer outrageous human rights violations: from mass surveillance and police discipline to mass torture, including solitary confinement and sterilizations forced, through intimidation of journalists and activists who dared to expose the truth ”, she stressed. “The exploitation of forced labor by the Chinese government crosses the oceans to our coasts and around the world”, she added.
Diplomatic boycott of the Olympic Games
Beijing, which rejects accusations relating to its treatment of Uighurs, did not immediately react to the vote in the US Parliament.
The United States Senate passed a similar bill in July. The two texts will have to be harmonized. The final version will then require ratification from President Joe Biden, but the White House has not been clear on support for the text.
This vote of representatives comes a few days after the announcement of a diplomatic boycott by the United States of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to denounce what Washington describes as “Genocide” Uighur minority and other human rights violations.
In another vote, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution declaring that the International Olympic Committee “Did not respect its own human rights commitments” amid doubts over the safety of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who has accused a top Chinese Communist Party leader of sexual assault.