Xinjiang: Chairs Release New Legislation & Report on Global Supply Chains and Forced Labor

March 11, 2020

(Washington DC)--U.S. Representative James McGovern (D-MA) and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), the Chair and Cochair, respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China, held a roundtable event today to examine the impact of Chinese government-sponsored forced labor in and from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) on global supply chains as well as U.S. and international consumers.  At the roundtable, the Chairs released new legislation and a new report entitled Global Supply Chains, Forced Labor, and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region detailing the Chinese government’s far-reaching system of forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). 

The full roundtable video can be viewed on the CECC’s YouTube channel.

The Chairs were joined by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), and Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) in announcing new bipartisan and bicameral legislation--the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act-- to address the importation of forced labor-made goods into the U.S. from the XUAR.  Among other provisions, the bill creates a “rebuttable presumption” about forced labor in Xinjiang. Any corporations seeking to import goods produced in Xinjiang must demonstrate through “clear and convincing” evidence that there was no forced labor in their supply chains.           

“Any U.S. or international company with operations in Xinjiang or working with the Xinjiang government to source labor to other parts of China should reconsider whether they want to be producing products in a region where there is evidence ‘crimes against humanity’ are being committed,” said Representative McGovern. “It is long past time for companies to reassess their operations and supply chains in Xinjiang and find alternatives that do not exploit and violate individuals’ human rights.”

“For far too long the Chinese Communist Party has gotten away with the systematic use of forced labor by Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang,” said Senator Rubio. “While the U.S. Government should take all precautionary measures to ensure that goods made in the XUAR don’t enter our market, companies have a moral duty and responsibility to prove that their sourced products have been produced without forced labor.”

Copies of the legislation and forced labor report can be downloaded from the cecc.gov website or requested from Scott.Flipse@mail.house.gov