A bipartisan team led by Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Representative Jim McGovern have brokered a deal for a final version of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the legislation that codifies U.S. commitment to penalize the Chinese regime for its human rights atrocities.
The bill targets trade, boycotting imports from the northwest province of Xinjiang, where the Uyghur Muslim minority and other marginalized groups are predominantly concentrated, unless the U.S. government confirms with “clear and convincing evidence” that the goods were not manufactured with forced labor, Axios first reported.
Companies such as Nike and Coca Cola, both of which have a large footprint in the Chinese market as well as plans for expansion there, have lobbied aggressively to kill the pending regulation, which they say will stifle business growth.
Xinjiang also produces more than half of the world’s polysilicon, a raw material used to make solar panels, Axios noted.
The’ compromise comes as U.S.-China antagonism continues to mount, cemented recently by the U.S. diplomatic withdrawal from the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. China’s Foreign Ministry did not take the news well, vowing to make the U.S. “pay a price” for the boycott and accusing the U.S. of making the games a “stage for political stances or political manipulation.”
What culminated in America’s exit from the Olympics started with the mysterious disappearance of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who dropped off the radar weeks ago after she exposed a former Chinese official, who was cozy with President Xi Jinping, for sexual assault. The episode hardened anger in Congress over China’s record of human rights violations, not limited to mass detention and abuse of political prisoners, forced sterilization and genocide of the Uyghur people, suppression of the Hong Kong freedom movement, and aggression towards Taiwan.
Rubio and McGovern’s legislation is a first major attempt to punish China for its crimes, but it puts the Biden administration in a tricky spot given that it wants to collaborate with China to curb climate change. Republicans have accused officials like climate envoy John Kerry of fighting against the bill to keep this policy priority on track.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last month that the administration has provided “technical assistance on the legislation,” but it has far from endorsed it.
The bill combines proposals drafted by Rubio and McGovern, the former of which passed the Senate in July and the latter of which passed in the House earlier this month. The condensed draft now goes to both the House and Senate for a vote before it can advance.
Source: National Review
