US Ban On Xinjiang Goods Will Damage Global Supply Chain: China

China on Thursday said the US' plan to ban imports from its western Xinjiang province over alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs will hit the global supply chain.

"The US' so-called Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) will seriously interfere in the normal cooperation between Chinese and US companies, damaging the global supply chain, which will eventually hurt the interests of the US," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.

He was responding to reports that Washington is getting ready to implement the UFLPA, signed into law last December by President Joe Biden, to ban imports from Xinjiang.

"China will take resolute measures if the US continues enforcing the act," Zhao warned, according to Chinese daily Global Times.

He said the law "is based on the repeated lies about so-called forced labor and is part of a smear campaign."

The UFLPA bill was introduced by Senators Marco Rubio and Jeff Merkley in 2020.

After it was approved by Biden, Rubio hailed the law as "the most important and impactful action taken thus far by the US to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their use of slave labor."

However, Beijing retorted by saying that Washington "should save the labels of 'forced labor' and 'genocide' for itself."

Over the years, several countries have accused China of ethnic cleansing of Uyghurs, a Muslim-majority community.

According to UN data, at least 1 million Uyghurs are kept against their will in places Beijing calls "vocational training centers" and the international community defines as "re-education camps."

While the UN and other international organizations have repeatedly called for the camps to be opened for inspection, China has allowed a few of the centers to be partially viewed by a small number of foreign diplomats and journalists.

Beijing has persistently denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the allegations as "lies and (a) political virus."

Last month, China hosted UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet for a week-long trip, during which she visited Xinjiang and held meetings with President Xi Jinping, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other officials and civil society representatives.

Bachelet became the first high-level UN human rights official to travel to China in 17 years.

During their interactions with Bachelet, Wang insisted that the international community should "clarify misunderstandings" on China's human rights record, while Xi emphasized that the "right to subsistence and development" are "primary human rights" of the developing world and any attempts to "impose rights models from outside could be disastrous."

International human rights defenders urged the UN rights chief to "address crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations" during her Xinjiang visit.

Bachelet, however, insisted her trip was not to probe such allegations. -