Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Government of the People’s Republic of China has established a system of extrajudicial mass internment camps arbitrarily detaining as many as 1,800,000 Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups who have been subjected to forced labor, torture, political indoctrination, and severe human rights abuses. Forced labor exists within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region’s system of mass internment camps, and throughout the region, and is confirmed by the testimony of former camp detainees, satellite imagery, and official leaked documents from the Government of the People’s Republic of China as part of a targeted campaign of repression of Muslim ethnic minorities.
There is a very high risk that many factories and other suppliers in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are exploiting forced labor, according to reports from researchers, media, and civil society groups. Audits to vet products and supply chains in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are not possible because of the extent to which forced labor has contaminated the regional economy, the mixing of involuntary labor with voluntary labor, the inability of witnesses to speak freely about working conditions given heavy government surveillance and coercion, and the strong incentive of government officials to conceal government-sponsored forced labor.
In its June 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report, the Department of State found, Authorities offer subsidies incentivizing Chinese companies to open factories in close proximity to the internment camps, and local governments receive additional funds for each inmate forced to work in these sites at a fraction of minimum wage or without any compensation. . In September 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a withhold release order with respect to garments produced by Hetian Taida Apparel Co., Ltd., because of suspected prison or forced labor from its factories in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
In its 2019 Annual Report, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China found that products reportedly produced with forced labor by current and former mass internment camp detainees included textiles, electronics, food products, shoes, tea, and handicrafts. According to public reports, companies that are or have been suspected of directly employing forced labor or sourcing from suppliers that are suspected of using forced labor include Adidas, Badger Sportswear, Calvin Klein, the Campbell Soup Company, the Coca-Cola Company, COFCO Tunhe Company, Costco, Esquel Group, Esprit, H&M, Hetian Taida, the Huafu Fashion Company, the Kraft Heinz Company, Litai Textiles, Nike, Inc., Patagonia, Inc., Tommy Hilfiger, the Urumqi Shengshi Huaer Culture Technology Company, the Yili Zhuo Wan Garment Manufacturing Company, and the Zhihui Haipai Internet of Things Technology Company.
Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 ( 19 U.S.C. 1307 ) prohibits the importation into the United States of goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by forced labor. Such merchandise is subject to exclusion or seizure and may lead to criminal investigation of the importer. The policies of the Government of the People’s Republic of China are in contravention of international human rights standards, including— the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the People's Republic of China has signed but not yet ratified; the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, ratified by the People’s Republic of China in 2001; and the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (commonly referred to as the Palermo Protocol ), to which the People's Republic of China is a state party.
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