Washington: The United States has asked the Chinese government to immediately end genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang province.
The US government made the comment at a time when the US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed the “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act” that bans importing of goods into the US made with forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement: “We will continue doing everything we can to restore the dignity of those who yearn to be free from forced labor.”
He said, “The State Department is committed to working with the Congress and our interagency partners to continue addressing forced labor in Xinjiang and to strengthen international action against this egregious violation of human rights.”
“This new law gives the US government new tools to prevent goods made with forced labor in Xinjiang from entering US markets and to further promote accountability for persons and entities responsible for these abuses,” Blinken said.
He said addressing forced labor has been a priority for the administration.
“We have taken concrete measures to promote accountability in Xinjiang, including visa restrictions, Global Magnitsky and other financial sanctions, export controls, Withhold Release Orders and import restrictions, and the release of a business advisory on Xinjiang – all while rallying allies and partners to take joint action to ensure all global supply chains are free from the use of forced labor, including from Xinjiang,” Blinken added.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement: “Congress, on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, will continue to condemn and confront the CCP’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang and many other abuses in the region, from Hong Kong to Tibet to the mainland.”
“If America does not speak out for human rights in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out for human rights in any place in the world,” the statement read.
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