Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Texas (Mr. Castro) for yielding, but also for his commitment to human rights, not only with regard to the repression that is going on in China, but all around the world.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 6210, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. I am proud to have authored this legislation to address human rights and forced labor abuses against Uyghur and other Muslim groups in China.
There is strong, diverse, bipartisan, and bicameral support for this legislation, including from my colleagues on the Congressional- Executive Commission on China. Senator Marco Rubio, Representative Chris Smith, and Representative Tom Suozzi all helped draft this legislation. I thank Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her longtime advocacy for human rights in China and for her leadership in getting this bill to the House floor. I thank Chairman Engel, as well as Ranking Member McCaul, Chairman Neal, and Chairwoman Waters for the support of their committees.
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, of which I serve as the chair, held the first congressional hearing on this topic a year ago, followed up with a groundbreaking staff report, and then held an expert roundtable event on this issue. We found that the evidence of systematic and widespread forced labor in Xinjiang is astounding and irrefutable and includes evidence from camp detainees, satellite imagery of factories being built at internment camps, and public and leaked Chinese Government documents. All the evidence we accumulated led to the introduction of this bipartisan, bicameral legislation in March 2020.
It is time for Congress to act. Over the past several years, we have watched in horror as the Chinese Government first created and then expanded a system of extrajudicial mass internment camps. As many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and members of other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups have been arbitrarily detained in the camps and subjected to forced labor, torture, political indoctrination, and other severe human rights abuses.
Reports published during the past year detailed an expansive and systematic policy of forcibly separating ethnic minority children from their families. A Chinese Government policy document stated that nearly half a million schoolchildren were attending boarding schools. The forcible displacement of children is in violation of the Chinese Government's law on the protection of minors and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Investigations during the past year detailed a policy of forcibly separating ethnic minority children from their families and the use of forced birth control and sterilization, which may be in contravention of the U.N. Convention on Genocide to which it is a party. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum had already determined that crimes against humanity may have been committed.
In July, I joined a bipartisan letter signed by over 75 Members calling on the Trump administration to make an official determination as to whether atrocity crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity, are being committed. We have yet to hear back from the administration.
It is time for Congress to act. We know forced labor is widespread and systematic, and it exists both within and outside the mass internment camps. These facts are confirmed by the testimony of former camp detainees, satellite imagery, and official leaked documents from the Chinese Government. We know that many U.S., international, and Chinese companies are complicit in the exploitation of forced labor and specific products include textiles, electronics, and food products.
Audits of supply chains are simply not possible because workers cannot speak freely and honestly about working conditions, given heavy surveillance and intimidation.
Current U.S. law states that it is illegal to import into the United States ``goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part'' by forced labor. Unfortunately, products made with forced labor are still making their way into global supply chains and our country.
The Trump administration has taken some actions, including sending out a business advisory and placing withhold release orders on some businesses and entities in China. But these piecemeal actions fall far short of addressing a regional economic system that is built upon a foundation of forced labor and repression.
Further, we should all be disturbed by reports that President Trump gave a green light to President Xi by telling him that building the camps was ``the right thing to do.'' Ending forced labor was not even discussed as part of the ``Phase One'' trade deal.
It is time for Congress to act. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act prohibits imports from Xinjiang to the U.S. by creating a ``rebuttal presumption'' that all goods produced in the region are made with forced labor unless U.S. Customs and Border Protection certifies by ``clear and convincing evidence'' that goods were not produced with forced labor.
The legislation also authorizes targeted sanctions, requires financial disclosures about involvement in the region, and requires a State Department determination about whether crimes against humanity or genocide are occurring.
For more than 2 years, U.S. and international companies have been aware of forced labor throughout the Xinjiang region. It is long past time for these companies to reassess their supply chains and find alternatives that do not exploit labor and violate human rights.
Their failure to do so has led U.S. consumers to unwittingly purchase goods made with forced labor. That must end.
Effective enforcement would mean that workers and farmers would no longer have to compete against forced labor from Xinjiang. For too long, the world has been silent while Uyghurs and other Muslim groups suffered under severe repression.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I believe the lack of any international response for so long allowed the Chinese Government the space to impose this extreme system of repression. But now the world has woken up.
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is taking the strongest action yet. I am proud to stand in solidarity with the Uyghur people and, indeed, all the people living under the rule of the Chinese Government, in their struggle to live freely, practice their religious beliefs freely, and speak their own languages freely.
Madam Speaker, I look forward to the passage of this legislation, continuing our bipartisan work together to support human rights in China. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
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