CNN Reveals a Predictable Issue Regarding Those Who Think Healthcare CEO Killer Is...
ProPublica Whiffs on a Pretty Big Story About Pete Hegseth
Support for Mass Deportations Is Quite Healthy In a State That's *Not* Trump...
Time Magazine's Person of the Year Is Going to Make Libs Seethe
X-Files: We Had Another Night of Drones Flying Everywhere in New Jersey
No Peace on Earth, or Goodwill
Here's Who Trump Reportedly Invited to His Inauguration
Trump Announces New Role for Kari Lake
More Than Half of Voters Use This Word to Describe How They Feel...
Biden Announces Largest Single-Day Act of Clemency in Modern History
Defense Department Is Combating 'Climate Change As a Security Concern for Africans'
Did Washington State Come Up With a Solution for Transgender Athletes?
Revealed: British Pollster Who Nailed the US Election Explains How Her Team Did...
You Won't Believe Who Received the Reagan 'Peace Through Strength' Award
Whither Syria?
Tipsheet

Senate Unanimously Passes Legislation Forbidding Products Made with Uyghur Slave Labor into US

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool

On Wednesday night, the U.S. Senate passed legislation by unanimous consent which will forbid products made from the Uyghur slave labor from entering the United States. The bill, known as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (S.65), was the bipartisan effort from Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). Both Rubio and Merkley are members the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), which Merkley is the chairman of. 

Advertisement

More than half of the senators co-sponsored the legislation, including Republicans, Democrats, and both Independent senators, Bernie Sanders (VT) and Angus King (ME).

The legislation, according to a press release from Sen. Rubio's office, "will ensure that goods tainted with the forced labor of Uyghurs, and others, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and by certain entities affiliated with the China Communist Party (CCP) do not enter the U.S. market."

Also included in the press release were statements from Sens. Rubio and Merkley:

“The message to Beijing and any international company that profits from forced labor in Xinjiang is clear: no more,” Rubio said. “We will not turn a blind eye to the CCP’s ongoing crimes against humanity, and we will not allow corporations a free pass to profit from those horrific abuses. Once this bill passes the House and is signed by the President, the United States will have more tools to prevent products made with forced labor from entering our nation’s supply chains. We cannot afford any further delay, and I call on my colleagues in the House to promptly send this bill to the President.” 

“Today the Senate is sending a clear message that the United States will not be complicit in the Chinese government’s genocide of Uyghur Muslims,” Merkley said. “Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang are being forced into labor, tortured, imprisoned, forcibly sterilized, and pressured to abandon their religious and cultural practices by the Chinese government. No American corporation should profit from these abuses. No American consumers should be inadvertently purchasing products from slave labor.”

Advertisement

Humans rights groups have highlighted the systemic genocide and oppression of the Uyghur Muslims at the hands of the CCP.  Such people have been subject to human rights abuses such as concentration camps, family separations, slave labor, rape and forced abortions, as well as sterilization and forced IUDs as a form of eugenics

A May 16 editorial from The Washington Post highlighted the population decline which the Uyghurs are facing. 

Predictably, the CCP has denied claims of these concentration camps, and rather refers to them as training camps to get rid of extremism.

Sen. Rubio has supported the plight of Uyghur Muslims from years. He also provided a statement to Townhall in March, about the legislation which just passed on Wednesday.

"The Trump Administration rightly determined that Beijing’s heinous acts against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities constitute crimes against humanity and genocide. It is now the time for Congress to pass meaningful legislation such as my Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to ensure the CCP does not profit from its abuses. This bipartisan bill would address the systematic use of Uyghur forced labor and create a mechanism to ensure that Americans aren’t unknowingly complicit in the consumption of goods made by forced labor," said the senator in March.

Advertisement

On June 17, 2020, then President Donald Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-145), into law, which, according to Sen. Rubio's office, is "the first piece of legislation on Uyghur human rights to be signed into law in the world."

Sen. Rubio referenced the legislation during a May 2021 appearance on Fox News.


Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement