US House Passes Bill To Ban Products Made In China's Xinjiang, Pave Way For Sanctions

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2020) The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation on Tuesday to ban US imports of products made with forced labor in China's Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region and to sanction individuals involved in labor trafficking.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act passed with a vote of 406-3 and will now head to the Senate for consideration.

Last week, the Trump administration announced that it will immediately block the import of goods made in Xinjiang to end alleged forced labor practices.

Human rights groups have accused Chinese authorities of detaining more than a million people, mostly from Muslim ethnic groups that include Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, in a network of detention centers as part of an assimilation campaign.

China has denied the charges, saying the camps it built for Uyghurs and other minorities were for vocational and Chinese language training and not for slave labor.