US President Joe Biden has passed a law banning the import of large quantities of goods from the Xinjiang region of China. The law, signed by the US president on Thursday, bans products made entirely or partially in this Chinese province – unless companies can prove that they were not manufactured using forced labor.
The law is based on a dispute between Washington and Beijing over human rights abuses against the Muslim majority Uyghur minority in western China. China has denied US allegations that the provincial government is “genocidal” minorities. Among other things, China has been accused of stuffing hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs in re-education camps and forcing them to work.
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There are about ten million Uyghurs living in China, most of them in the western province of Xinjiang. They are considered racially related to the Turks and are economically, politically and culturally oppressed by the ruling Han Chinese. After they came to power in 1949, the Communists annexed China’s former East Turkestan. The Beijing government accuses Uighur groups of separatism and terrorism.
New US law requires better import controls of three commodities: cotton, Xinjiang, one of the world’s largest producers; The most widely produced tomato in the region; And polysilicon, a material used in the manufacture of solar modules. This is the world’s first import ban.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blingen called on the Chinese government to end the “genocide and crimes against humanity.”
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The law goes to the initiative of the US Congress. Last week the Senate voted unanimously in a rare consensus on the import ban. Earlier, lobby groups of companies that relied heavily on imports from China tried to block the vote.
It is noteworthy that Biden did not sign the camera front frame like his predecessor Donald Trump with other trade restrictions against China. Instead, his office posted a photo on Twitter.
Like Trump, Biden sees China as America’s greatest rival globally. However, unlike the Republicans, the Democrats do not want to break the thread of the dialogue and rely on limited cooperation, for example in the fight against climate change.
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This law will become a big problem for US companies buying parts from China – even if they are not imported directly from Xinjiang. For example, chip maker Intel was caught in the crossfire when it asked its suppliers not to buy any goods from the provinces.
This caused a great stir on Chinese websites. Intel sought to counter public outrage with an apology posted on the Chinese site Weibo. In it the American company wrote: “Our original purpose was to ensure compliance with American law”. Intel apologizes for “problems caused by our esteemed Chinese customers, partners and the general public”.
The U.S. government criticized the move on Thursday: “We hope that US companies will never feel the need to apologize for campaigning for basic human rights or fighting repression.” (AFP, Tsp)
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