The U.S. already bans imports made with forced labor, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers said virtually anything coming from Xinjiang, including goods sold by major American and global consumer brands, should be considered tainted by the mass detention and repression of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. “We know forced labor is widespread and systematic and exists both within and outside the mass internment camps,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, referring to detention centers where the Chinese government is subjecting hundreds of thousands of Uighurs to abusive conditions, torture and political indoctrination.
McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which released a report that documented forced labor. It found it in the mass internment camps, on farms in Xinjiang, that produce cotton for the global market as well as factories elsewhere in the country.
