The US House of Representatives has once again blackmailed Xinjiang

【Text/Observer Network Ju Feng】

According to the New York Times, the U.S. House of Representatives, which is politically polarized on weekdays, passed a Xinjiang-related bill on December 8 with 428 votes in favor and one vote against, which will prohibit the import of all goods from Xinjiang unless companies can provide clear evidence that the goods are not produced by so-called "forced labor."

Screenshot of the report

For some time, the US government has been using the Xinjiang issue to stigmatize China's image, and the national defense authorization bill just passed by the US House of Representatives yesterday also has negative China-related content prohibiting the military from purchasing Xinjiang products.

The latest bill passed by the House of Representatives, the so-called Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act, was introduced by Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern. The bill requires all companies to provide "clear and convincing evidence" that products imported from Xinjiang were not manufactured in a forced manner.

The bill also requires President Joe Biden to impose sanctions on foreign entities and individuals that "knowingly" facilitate the "forced labor" of Uighurs and other minorities. If the bill falls, the U.S. State Department must also confirm within 90 days whether the treatment of the "Muslim community" constitutes "genocide" and introduce countermeasures.

The bill would need to pass a Senate vote and Biden's signature before it could become law.

The sinister aspect of the bill is that it presupposes a false premise that "products from Xinjiang are basically produced by forced labor."

Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, cast the only negative vote. He has expressed his opposition to the bill because he believes the United States should not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Incidentally, after the school shooting last week, Marci shared photos of the family holding guns on social media, which once became the focus of public opinion in the United States.

According to Axios, products from China's Xinjiang region have been deeply integrated into the lucrative global supply chain. Nike and Coca-Cola are among the main companies lobbying against the bill. Xinjiang also accounts for nearly 50 percent of the world's polysilicon production, a raw material used to make solar panels.

It's unclear whether the new Xinjiang bill, passed in the House of Representatives, will pass the Senate and then be sent to Biden's desk. Whether Biden will sign it is also unknown. But in July, the U.S. Bundesrat unanimously passed a similar bill.

Jeff Merkley, co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, told Axios that "both the Senate and the House have passed a strong version of this legislation, and now we need to harmonize the bill and get it to ground." ”

On December 2, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a news conference that the claim that "forced labor" exists in Xinjiang is a big lie and a century of lies. Some Western politicians, especially some politicians in the United States, clamor for so-called "forced labor," which is essentially engaging in political manipulation under the guise of human rights, interfering in China's internal affairs, and curbing and suppressing the development of China, especially Xinjiang.

"There are still about 500,000 child laborers in agriculture in the United States, and between 240,000 and 325,000 women and children are sexually enslaved. Over the past five years, as many as 100,000 people have been trafficked to the United States each year for forced labor; half of them have been sold to sweatshops or subjected to domestic slavery. "These people who spread the so-called 'forced labor' in Xinjiang suggest that they go to the United States to investigate the phenomenon of 'forced labor'." Believe they will discover more facts. ”

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