The Biden administration ramped up its warnings about doing business in Xinjiang, contending that the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide against the Uyghurs is ongoing while its system of forced labor is pervasive and far-reaching.
The U.S. government released its updated 36-page Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory on Tuesday, alleging the Chinese government is conducting genocide against the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities, arguing that China’s “crimes against humanity include imprisonment, torture, rape, forced sterilization, and persecution, including through forced labor and the imposition of draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement.” In comparison, the same advisory from July 2020 was just 19 pages long, stating that the Chinese government “continues to carry out a campaign of repression in Xinjiang.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States issued the updated advisory “in response to the government of the People’s Republic of China’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and the growing evidence of its use of forced labor there.”
The new advisory follows a State Department report earlier this month that placed China on a small list of countries whose governments engage in a “policy or pattern” of human trafficking. That report said China “has carried out a mass detention and political indoctrination campaign” against the Uyghurs. Last week, the Commerce Department added more than a dozen Chinese entities to its blacklist, contending the groups “have enabled Beijing’s campaign of repression, mass detention, and high-technology surveillance.”
US SANCTIONS CCP COMPANIES OVER UYGHUR ABUSES
“Businesses, individuals, and other persons, including but not limited to investors, consultants, labor brokers, academic institutions, and research service providers with potential exposure to or connection with operations, supply chains, or laborers from the Xinjiang-region, should be aware of the significant reputational, economic, and legal risks of involvement with entities or individuals in or linked to Xinjiang that engage in human rights abuses,” the U.S. advisory warned. “Given the severity and extent of these abuses, including widespread, state-sponsored forced labor and intrusive surveillance taking place amid ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, businesses and individuals that do not exit supply chains, ventures, and/or investments connected to Xinjiang could run a high risk of violating U.S. law.”
The U.S. outlined four main ways that a supply chain could be exposed to Chinese entities engaged in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including “assisting or investing in the development of surveillance tools,” especially related to genetic collection and analysis, on behalf of China’s government, “sourcing labor or goods” from Xinjiang or other areas in China tied to the use of forced labor there, “supplying U.S.-origin commodities, software, and technology to entities engaged in such surveillance and forced labor practices” in Xinjiang, and “aiding in the construction and operation of internment facilities” used to detain Uyghurs.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian responded on Tuesday, saying: “No matter how some in the U.S. go to great lengths along its misguided course to hype up lies on Xinjiang, their political conspiracy to disrupt Xinjiang and contain China will only end up in failure.”
The advisory warned about “mass forced labor transfers of Uyghurs” from Xinjiang then being subjected to forced labor both inside and outside Xinjiang and pointed to evidence of forced labor in China’s apparel, textile, cotton, mining, and agricultural industries. The alert also said the Chinese government “dominates” global solar supply chains, adding that “mounting evidence indicates that solar products and inputs at nearly every step of the production process, from raw silicon material mining to final solar module assembly, are linked to known or probable forced labor programs.”
The U.S. provided details about the Chinese government’s abuses in Xinjiang, arguing that it had “unjustly imprisoned more than one million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and members of other ethnic and Muslim minority groups for indefinite periods in internment camps” since 2017, with detainees describing “extreme overcrowding, sleep and food deprivation, medical neglect, physical and psychological abuse, torture, forced labor, forced ingestion of unidentified drugs, forced sterilizations and abortions, sexual abuse, forced renunciation of religion, denial of prayer and other religious practices (including pressure to consume pork or alcohol), denial of the use of their native languages, and being forced to study and recite Chinese Communist Party propaganda.” The advisory added that “there are reports that some detainees have died in the internment camps, or very shortly after release, as a result of abuse and neglect.”
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The new advisory said there is “evidence of forced labor, under the guise of ‘vocational training’ obtained using threats, force, detention, debt bondage, and other abusive practices occurring in the internment camps, large industrial parks, PRC companies outside Xinjiang, and among the non-detained rural residents of Southern Xinjiang where the majority of Uyghurs live.” The State Department said that “there are reports of forced labor in the internment camps themselves, as well as reports of individuals ‘graduating’ from the camps and then being required to work at nearby facilities or sent to satellite factories in their home region or other provinces.”
The U.S. also revealed that “Xinjiang government documents indicate the existence of a large-scale PRC government plan, known as the ‘mutual pairing assistance’ program, for companies from other parts of China to establish satellite factories in Xinjiang in conjunction with the internment camps.” The advisory said that 19 Chinese cities and developed provinces “are spending billions of Chinese yuan to establish factories in Xinjiang” and that some of the factories “directly involve the use of internment camp labor.”
