WASHINGTON - Uyghur activists have welcomed the Biden administration’s blacklisting of a further 37 Chinese companies for ties to slave labor in China’s Xinjiang region, the largest addition yet to an import ban list introduced under legislation passed in late 2021.
The blacklisting of 37 companies eclipses only the Nov. 22 listing of 29 companies and means the total number of Chinese companies banned from exporting to the United States for ties to Uyghur forced labor has grown from 78 to 144 since November’s presidential election.
The U.S. government says a “genocide” is occuring against the mostly Muslim Uyghurs in China and Congress in December 2021 passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which mandates bans on imports from companies accused of profiting from indentured Uyghur labor.
The blacklist eked its way out to 78 in the almost three years between the law’s passage and the Nov. 5 presidential election – with two or three companies typically added at a time – before ballooning out to 144 thanks to the two largest listings across the past two months.
“In adding 37 companies to the UFLPA Entities List and bringing the total to nearly 150, we again demonstrate our relentless fight against the cruelty of forced labor, our unwavering commitment to basic human rights, and our tireless defense of a free, fair, and competitive market,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.
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The companies blacklisted in the latest round include solar panel makers Hongyuan Green Energy and Donghai JA Solar Technology, 26 companies in the cotton sector and a number of polysilicon makers.
Blacklisting welcomed
Elfidar Iltebir, the president of the Uyghur American Association, told Radio Free Asia that her group was “very pleased” with the latest listing but that many more Chinese companies were still profiting from the forced labor of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and then exporting to America.
“Of course, the total number of companies that have been sanctioned to date has reached 144, but this is a very small fraction of the companies that are using Uyghur forced labor,” Iltebir said.
“We will continue to work to ensure that this work continues, and we hope that the new administration will continue to enforce UFLPA.”
Geoffrey Cain, the author of the 2021 book The Perfect Police States, which in part details Beijing’s repression of the Uyghurs, told RFA that the last-minute whirlwind of blacklistings from the Biden administration reflected unease about the future of U.S. policy on China.
While Trump’s first term in office was marked by antagonism toward China, he noted, the president-elect has at times over the past year suggested that he might take a more conciliatory stance on China.
“It’s not clear if that’s going to continue into the next administration,” Cain said. “Donald Trump originally said that he was going to support the TikTok ban, and then reversed his position later, in the past year.”
Cain noted that there would be figures both “hawkish” on China in Trump’s inner-circle, such as Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, and more friendly towards Beijing, such as Elon Musk, who he said “might want to increase engagement and trade relations.”
“It depends on who Donald Trump is listening to, who has his ear, and that’s going to decide what the policy is going to be,” he said. “What the Biden administration is doing is just trying to ratchet up and increase sanctions that it can now before the next administration comes in.”