US cracks down on entities involved in “forced labor” in Xinjiang

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday announced the expansion of the Entity List of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) to “combat exploitation and abuse of the Uyghur people”.

This includes five entities belonging to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), taking the new number to 73, DHS said in an official press release.

The UFLPA Entity List is a list of companies that are involved in sourcing raw materials or manufacturing final products in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR). According to the press statement, the latest entities added to the UFLPA list are Century Sunshine Group Holdings Limited, Kashgar Construction Engineering (Group) Company Limited, Rare Earth Magnesium Technology Group Holdings Limited, Xinjiang Habahe Ashley Copper Company Limited (also known as Ashley Copper) and Xinjiang Tengjiang Magnesium Products Company Limited.

DHS mentioned in the press statement that starting August 9 this year, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will enforce a rebuttable presumption that goods produced by these companies will be banned from entering the United States borders.

This list reflects DHS’s commitment to ending forced labor and promoting accountability for China’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uighurs and other religious and ethnic minority groups in the XUAR.

“As DHS identifies more entities across sectors that use or promote forced labor, we work to keep their tainted goods out of our nation’s supply chains. Today’s announcement strengthens our enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and helps responsible companies conduct due diligence so that together we can keep products of forced labor out of our country. We will continue to vigorously enforce this law in our efforts to fight the exploitation and abuse of the Uyghur people and other persecuted groups and protect a free and fair market,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, according to a DHS press statement.

According to the press statement, the decision against these entities will also apply to the Office of the US Trade Representative and the US Departments of Commerce, Justice, Labor, State, and Treasury, which are members of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF).

The UFLPA Entity List includes companies that are active in the apparel, agriculture, polysilicon, plastics, chemicals, batteries, household appliances, electronics, and food additives sectors. The DHS press statement also mentions that identifying these additional entities gives US importers more information to conduct due diligence and check their supply chains for risks of forced labor to ensure compliance with the UFLPA.

In addition, DHS Undersecretary for Policy Robert Silver also serves as the chair of the FLETF. “We have shown again through today’s enforcement actions that the United States is committed to keeping goods made with forced labor out of U.S. supply chains. Companies must do due diligence and know where their products are coming from. The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force will continue to designate entities in various sectors that meet the criteria for inclusion on the UFLPA Entity List, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will continue its vigilant enforcement at our ports.”

The press statement quoted FLETF as saying that based on specific and clear information, they have reasonable grounds to believe that two of the recently added companies are also involved in colluding with the XUAR government to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor, or otherwise receive forced labor of Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups from the XUAR.