(TibetanReview.net, Dec18’21) – China is well known for bullying countries into parroting its “one China” policy and maintaining silence on its bestial human rights record if they wish to maintain trade relations and other ties with it. And now China is accusing the US of bullying it after its Congress passed a bill that requires companies to prove that goods imported from Xinjiang were not produced with forced labour.
The US and a number of other countries and parliaments have accused China of genocide in its repression of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. China has repeatedly rejected the accusation but refused to allow any independent investigation of the highly credible and damning reports even by the UN Human Rights Council.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, as the bill is formally known, now heads to the desk of President Joe Biden to be signed into law after the Senate approved it on Dec 16 with the vote of every member except one.
The law is only the latest in a series of intensifying US penalties over China’s alleged systemic and widespread abuse of ethnic and religious minorities in the western region, especially Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim Uyghurs.
China has responded angrily at this latest US move on the Xinjiang situation. China strongly protests and firmly opposes the bullying of the United States, and urges the US side to immediately stop its wrong practices, China’s official Xinhua news agency Dec 18 cited a spokesperson with the country’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) as saying.
The spokesperson was reported to have warned that China will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security and the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.
