New Delhi: The United States Senate has given its final approval to a bill seeking to ban imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless the exporter can assure that the goods were produced without forced labor.
It is the latest move by the United States to intensify punishments on China through sanctions for their alleged atrocities on religious and ethnic minorities in the western part of the country, particularly the Xinjiang region. The Senate on Thursday extended sanctions on various Chinese biotech and surveillance companies, including drone makers and government entities, news agency AP reported.
While China has always denied the allegations, the US has claimed that raw cotton, gloves, tomato products, silicone and viscose, fishing gear, and a range of components in solar power are among the goods that can be used for forced labor. are produced through
US President Joe Biden supported the measure, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week. It comes months after the White House refused to take a public stand on the old version of the law.
The Commerce Department has imposed new penalties on China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences and its 11 research institutes that focus on using biotechnology to support the Chinese military, the AP reported.
Apart from this, the Treasury Department also blacklisted some Chinese firms. These include DJI, the world’s largest drone manufacturer. The blacklist also includes image-recognition software firm Megwi, supercomputer maker Donning Information Industry, facial recognition specialist Cloudwalk Technology, cybersecurity group Xiamen Meya Pico, artificial intelligence company Yitu Technology and cloud computing firms Leon Technology and Netposa Technologies.
The move comes after the US’s recent diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing over “serious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang”. American athletes will participate but there will be no diplomatic representation by the USA. Kadam was followed by many other countries.
The US Senate on Thursday appointed veteran diplomat Nicholas Burns as ambassador to Beijing, filling a position that has been vacant for more than a year.
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