Global Courant
Experts say more than a million people, mostly Uighurs and Muslim minorities, are trapped in camps in western China’s Xinjiang region.
The United States on Friday banned imports from China-based printer manufacturer Ninestar Corp and a chemical company over alleged human rights violations in China, according to a Federal Register report.
Ninestar, whose website says it is the world’s fourth-largest laser printer manufacturer, and Xingjang Zhongtai Chemical Co Ltd, are banned from the US supply chain for engaging in trade practices targeting China’s Uighurs and other persecuted groups . Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement.
The companies were not immediately available for comment.
UN experts and rights groups estimate that more than a million people, mostly Uighurs and Muslim minorities, have been detained in camps in China’s western Xinjiang region in recent years, many saying they were victims of ideological training and abuse.
China has denied all allegations of abuse.
DHS said the actions were taken as part of the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA), which was signed into law in December 2021. The law prohibits imports into the US that are produced in Xinjiang or by companies identified on a UFLPA entity. List, unless the importer can prove that the goods were not produced using forced labour.
Twenty-two companies are now on the list, and DHS said it has investigated more than $1.3 billion worth of goods likely manufactured using forced labor nearly a year after the implementation of the UFLPA.
Ninestar and its eight Zhuhai-based subsidiaries, along with Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemical, were added to the list for cooperating with the government of Xinjiang to bring Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz or members of other persecuted groups from Xinjiang, according to the posting.
“The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force will continue to hold companies accountable for continued human rights violations in Xinjiang,” DHS Secretary of State for Policy Robert Silvers, who chairs the task force, said in a statement.
