A major law to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s enslavement of Uyghurs took effect today, kicking off a vigorous effort to enforce an effective ban on importing goods from Xinjiang.
The bipartisan sponsors of the legislation, called the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, hailed the law’s enactment and the release of a Department of Homeland Security enforcement strategy, in a statement on Friday.
“The United States is sending a clear message that we will no longer remain complicit in the Chinese Communist Party’s use of slave labor and egregious crimes against humanity,” said Senators Marco Rubio and Jeff Merkley, and Representatives Jim McGovern and Chris Smith, in the statement.
The law contains a rebuttable presumption, meaning that importers must prove that any goods originating from Xinjiang, or from forced-labor-connected entities in China, were not produced using forced labor. That’s a significant standard, filling the gaps left by previous discrete U.S. government actions to block certain cotton and agricultural imports.
Companies in industries as varied as textiles, agriculture, and green technology have been found to use Uyghur forced labor. In 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that at least 80,000 Uyghurs were placed in slave-labor programs across China between 2017 and 2019 alone.
In an op-ed for RealClearPolitics today, Rubio called the law “the most significant change in America’s relationship with China since 2001, when the communist nation joined the World Trade Organization.”
Rubio also characterized the law as a rejection of the elite ideology held by business leaders, politicians, and intellectuals that free trade with the West could bring about liberalization in China.
“This proclamation is already is sending shockwaves through the global economy, but enduring change will only come from its rigorous and thorough enforcement,” Rubio wrote, adding that the Biden administration is under pressure from businesses to minimize the law’s impact through various loopholes.
That the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act became law is significant, considering the obstacles that powerful interests threw up to block it.
Major companies with ties to Uyghur forced labor, such as Coca-Cola, Apple, and Nike, reportedly lobbied to water down the bill. In its own statement on the law’s enactment, the Uyghur Human Rights Project noted the corporate lobbying effort.
“The fact that it is now clearly illegal for companies to import goods made with Uyghur forced labor into the United States is a huge win for our movement to end atrocities in East Turkistan,” said UHRP executive director Omer Kanat, using the Uyghur name for Xinjiang.
The Biden administration also reportedly urged lawmakers to stymie the bill late last year, as it pursued an agenda emphasizing some degree of cooperation with Beijing. That effort, revealed by the Washington Post, sparked a public outcry, ending an unexplained monthslong delay of the bill and contributing to its ultimate passage by Congress and signature by the president.
The legislation could also hamper the White House’s green-energy push, as a New York Times report found that lithium mines in Xinjiang participated in a Uyghur forced-labor program. The mineral is a key component in electric-vehicle batteries.
Whether that will shape enforcement efforts remains to be seen. Last year, climate envoy John Kerry said the mass atrocities in Xinjiang are “not my lane.”
Nevertheless, top administration officials said they are committed to ensuring the law’s full implementation.
“The State Department is committed to working with Congress and our interagency partners to continue combating forced labor in Xinjiang and strengthen international coordination against this egregious violation of human rights,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a prepared statement today. “Addressing forced labor and other human rights abuses in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and around the world is a priority for President Biden and this Administration.”