US Lawmakers Seek Xinjiang Import Ban

Lawmakers in Washington have proposed a ban on most imports from Xinjiang, charging that goods produced by Uighur forced labourers were easily making their way into the United States.

The US already bans products made through slavery, but with rights groups saying as many as one million Uighurs and other minorities are held in camps in Xinjiang, lawmakers said forced labour was interwoven into the region's economy.

"These practices in Xinjiang are one of the world's largest human tragedies. It remains unimaginable, frankly, that this is happening in 2020," Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican sponsor of the bipartisan measure, told reporters on Wednesday.

Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat who leads the Congressional-Executive Commission on China – which looks at human rights – said that witnesses, surveillance photos and leaked documents all showed the existence of forced labour.

"We know that many US, international and Chinese companies are complicit in the exploitation of forced labour involving Uighurs and other Muslim minorities," McGovern said.

"Audits of supply chains are simply not possible because forced labour is so pervasive within the regional economy," he said.

The act would ban the import of any goods from Xinjiang unless US Customs and Border Protection has "clear and convincing evidence" that no forced labour was involved.

Uighur activists say that Beijing is conducting a massive brainwashing campaign in internment camps aimed at eradicating their culture.

Beijing says the camps are "vocational education centres" teaching Mandarin and job skills to steer "students" away from religious extremism.

A foreign ministry spokesman said at a regular press briefing Thursday that the US should "stop using the human rights issue to interfere in China's internal affairs." (AFP)