Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MEEKS. 1155.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1155, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act introduced by my good friend, colleague, and chairman of the Rules Committee, Mr. McGovern.
Let me also thank Speaker Pelosi for bringing this crucial measure to the floor, and her unwavering dedication to human rights issues in China over the course of her public life.
This necessary and bold measure reinforces this body's commitment to our values by responding to the PRC's human rights violations and imposing concrete costs on the PRC for the use of Uyghur forced labor.
Since 2017, the People's Republic of China has systematically carried out mass detention, torture, political indoctrination, restrictions on religious attractions, and inhumane atrocities against Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.
We have seen the People's Republic of China expand its extensive program of repression and transform it into a system of state-sponsored forced labor. Under the guise of vocational training or poverty alleviation, authorities in Xinjiang have forced thousands of adults and children to work against their will and under threat of punishment to produce goods and raw materials that are then woven into international supply chains and into our homes.
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, it has been conservatively estimated that more than 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang to work in factories across China between the years of 2017 and 2019, with some of them being sent directly from detention centers. Some analysts estimate that over 100,000 ex-detainees in Xinjiang are working in conditions of forced labor today.
I have seen firsthand the benefits of the American companies engaging in China. Most American companies pay above-market wages and have better corporate social responsibility practices than their domestic counterparts. It would be inconsistent with core and crucial American values for this body not to take a stand against forced labor, and to stand up for the persecuted Uyghurs.
Many brave companies have already spoken out and made ethical choices detrimental to their bottom line, and this bill ensures that corporate actors that have lived their values are not at a competitive disadvantage in the American marketplace.
This bill, which has passed the House before, prohibits the import of goods and merchandise from Xinjiang unless the importer can prove the products did not come from forced labor, imposes sanctions on officials facilitating the use of forced labor against Chinese ethnic minorities, adds important financial disclosures for public companies that do business in the region, and calls for a diplomatic strategy to address forced labor in Xinjiang.
This is a straightforward bill. It signals that forced labor has no place on this planet. It signals that products made using forced labor in Xinjiang have no place in the American marketplace. In 2021, for any country to utilize forced labor systematically and to oppress and exploit a population is simply unconscionable.
With the passage of this bipartisan measure, the House would hold accountable those responsible for perpetrating these heinous crimes that have irrevocably threatened the lives of over 1.8 million Uyghurs and Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and ensure Americans and American companies are not complicit in the Chinese Communist Party's human rights atrocities.
This legislation is critical to showing that we are putting human rights at the center of our foreign policy and economic policy. Mr. Speaker, I support and urge my colleagues to do the same.
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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I proudly yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the great State of Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).
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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I proudly yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from the great State of Virginia (Ms. Wexton).
I am happy that this bipartisan effort dealing with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is an opportunity for this body to send a resounding message to the world that we are engaged in a strategic competition with China around the world. And our stance on this issue, I believe, will define why our system is better.
But I must reply to some comments.
One, the comment that President Biden is holding us up. Well, I am the chair of this committee, he has never told me to hold up anything. In fact, he wants to move forward.
In fact, it is President Biden who has sanctioned officials responsible for genocide and issued supply chain advisories in Xinjiang.
The fact of the matter is, I think our bill is far superior. You go to the Senate side, the Senate says, this should take 300 days to stop. Our bill says 120 days.
For me, this is a personal situation. So I would wish that some of my colleagues who, rightfully, want to make sure that we send a strong message to the world that we are not going to stand for genocide. We are not going to stand for slave labor.
But it is best if they would join us about injustice in America. It is best if we fought together to make sure that when President Trump talked about a Muslim ban in the United States of America--that wasn't Joe Biden--we can't do it in America. That is the best way to lead.
When we talk about moving, I want to condemn it everywhere. Dr. King said: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We should lead by example collectively. We should lead by going forward with voting rights. We should lead by talking about reparations for those who were enslaved in America. We should lead by talking about the genocide that took place to Native Americans. We should lead by talking about the injustice in housing. We should lead by talking about civil rights.
So we have got to come together and stop it everywhere, and that is what this bill does. It sends a strong message. I want to be that example.
This just happens to be personal, so I had to say it. I don't like to put politics in these things, but I do like to tell the truth.
Mr. Speaker, we have got to work together. I want to thank especially Mr. McCaul. I have got to say this, too, in closing. I have got to say this in closing, because Mr. McCaul is my friend, and we work very closely together. I know his spirit and his heart, and he stands up. I look forward on this committee to continue to do that.
Pelosi), the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I just have these last remarks.
I also want to thank Mr. Smith. As indicated by the Speaker, from the time that I have been in Congress, his focus has been on human rights around the world. As the Speaker indicated, and as I indicated with Mr. McCaul and you will see coming up with these other bills, we have worked collectively, leaving politics out of it, focused on leading the world. That is what I look forward to, locking arms, sending that message around the world that we are not going to allow slave labor to flourish and to exist on this planet.
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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
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