US House Panel Urges More Action Against Uyghur Forced Labor

The US Congress should close a loophole that allows clothing websites to sell clothing in the United States made by Uyghur slaves and create a list of foreign manufacturers known to exploit forced labor, the US Select Committee said. Chamber on China in a report published on Wednesday.

The report also recommends that Congress pass legislation funding a public archive documenting the genocide of Uyghurs in China and that the executive branch make diplomatic efforts to help those fleeing the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region find refuge.

Released alongside a sister report offering 10 recommendations to Congress on US policy on Taiwan, the report follows a audience in prime time on the Uyghur genocide conducted on March 23 by the special bipartisan panel, established earlier in the year.

The report calls for changes to the “de minimis” threshold for customs inspections, allowing foreign fast-fashion websites to ship their products directly to consumers without being subject to the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act if the package is worth less than $800.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act was passed in 2021 and prohibits the importation of any products that have been made using forced labor. Under the law, more than $1 billion in shipments have already been prevented from entering the United States, according to official figures.

De minimis exception

However, the “de minimis” threshold for customs inspections was increased from $200 to $800 in 2015, the committee report notes.

In the wake of that change, along with “the rise of new online-only retailers” that sell items piece-by-piece to customers, the value of goods entering the US market under the exception increased from less than $ 10 billion in 2020 to nearly $40 billion in 2021, he said.

“Exploiting the de minimis threshold can be an important avenue through which PRC companies, such as online retail platforms that sell directly to consumers like Shein and Temu, circumvent the Forced Labor Prevention Law for Uyghurs,” he said, using a Chinese government acronym.

US Customs and Border Patrol officials “were unable to reasonably examine goods shipped to the United States from the People’s Republic of China under the current de minimis rule because of concerns about forced labor,” he said.

In addition to lowering the threshold, it calls on Congress to provide more funding to the Department of Homeland Security, both “to more rigorously enforce the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and to make a comprehensive list of all companies complicit in forced labor.” ”.

‘This genocide must end now’

The House Select Committee on China was created after Republicans regained control of the House in last year’s midterm elections.

Though led by Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, the committee has made an effort to present a bipartisan face, with Gallagher and Vice President Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, insisting they are on the same page with China.

Krishnamoorthi told Radio Free Asia that the adoption of the two reports on Wednesday was a clarion call for Congress to take further action against the Chinese Communist Party to “end the genocide.”

“The message that we are trying to send through this report is that the CCP needs to understand that in a bipartisan, and probably bicameral and indeed unified way, we are speaking with one voice that this genocide must end now.” Krishnamoorthi said.

He pointed to the de minimis exception as one area where Congress could act quickly to make a change that would force businesses to stop using forced labor if they want to make money in the United States.

“The $800 de minimis exception allows many companies to ship contaminated products by forced labor from the Xinjiang region. We get 2 million packages a day from the PRC,” he said, adding that US Customs and Border Patrol would also need more resources.

Taiwan peace and stability

The committee also issued a report titled “Ten for Taiwan,” offering 10 recommendations to “preserve peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait, after the committee participated in a simulated war game over the island last month. .

gallagher supposedly justified the game saying it was important to “get inside your opponent’s head and understand their strategic objectives”, concluding that any invasion of the self-contained island by China would also include cyberattacks in the United States.

Building on that, the report calls for the United States to produce “additional long-range missiles and unmanned vehicles in the Indo-Pacific region,” but warns that “the US defense manufacturing base is not positioned to rapidly produce the necessary numbers.

It also calls for the United States and Taiwan to train together so they can operate in an “integrated manner,” urges the US government to deliver already promised but not yet delivered weapons to Taipei, and notes that “resupplying Taiwan would be difficult if it were to a crisis.”

“At the Select Committee’s Taiwan war game, we saw the terrifying result of deterrence failure,” Gallagher said Wednesday. “Today is about doing what we can to make sure the game remains fictional.”

Edited by Malcolm Foster.