The US Senate passed a bill that bans all imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless they can prove they were produced without resorting to forced labor. The law now goes to the office of President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it.
The bill passed unanimously in the upper house is the latest that seeks to sanction China for mass arrests and other abuses against the rights of the Muslim Uighur minority.
The United States maintains that China is committing genocide against Uighurs, with forced sterilizations and arrests in large camps where they are allegedly forced to work in factories. China denies any abuse.
Hours earlier, the US government announced new sanctions against several Chinese biotech and surveillance companies based in Xinjiang province.
The target of the Commerce Department sanctions is the Academy of Military Medical Sciences with its 11 research institutes, which focus on biotechnology in support of the military.
US companies will only be able to sell inputs to these entities with an authorization.
“The scientific disciplines of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. Unfortunately, the PRC (People’s Republic of China) chooses to use these technologies to control its people and repress members of ethnic and religious minorities, ”Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo wrote in a statement.
“We cannot allow US raw materials, technologies and software that underpin medical science and biotechnology innovation to be diverted to uses contrary to the US national interest,” he added.
The Treasury Department is also preparing to apply sanctions to various Chinese entities, according to a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity as the measures were not yet announced.
According to the official, the US intelligence services have determined that Beijing maintains a high-tech surveillance system in Xinjiang, which uses biometric facial recognition and has collected DNA samples from all inhabitants between 12 and 65 years of age in Xinjiang such as part of a systematic campaign to crack down on the Uyghurs.
The Treasury Department said an investigation by various federal agencies determined that the Chinese academy and its research institutes “employ biotechnological processes to support Chinese military purposes including alleged mind-control weapons.”
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