By Tenzin Lekdhen
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 25: Joe Biden on Thursday signed the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill, that would allow the US government to “prevent goods made with forced labour in [East Turkestan] from entering US markets and to further promote accountability for persons and entities responsible for these abuses.” Several US multinational companies have lobbied against the bill, including Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple.
The new law is a response to the numerous reports of Uyghurs and other minorities subjected to forced labour and so-called “educational camps”, which reports say are closer to concentration camps, with comparisons to Nazi concentration camps. The report states, “[The US] will do everything we can to restore the dignity of those who yearn to be free from forced labour,” and called upon China, “to immediately end genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minority groups in [East Turkestan.]”
The New York Times, late last year, reported, citing congressional members, that several US-based multinational companies, including Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple, and others lobbied against the bill. The bill eventually passed the House by a substantial margin of 406 to 3 in September last year. Richard A. Mojica, a lawyer at Miller & Chevalier, told NYT that companies are already looking for other sources outside Xinjiang.
Earlier that year, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an Australian government-funded think tank, published a report titled “Uyghurs for sale”, according to which, more than 82 well known global brands across various markets have ties to factories accused of using forced Uyghurs labourers.
Technology companies such as Apple, Sony, Samsung, and fast-fashion clothing brands like GAP, H&M, Nike, Adidas are all named in the fifty-plus page report.
Coca-Cola, in a statement, said it “strictly prohibits any type of forced labour in [their] supply chain” by employing third-party auditors to monitor its supply chains. Nike claimed that they “did not lobby against” the said bill, but had “constructive discussions” with the congressional staff aides aimed at eliminating forced labour and protecting human rights, NYT reported.
On the same day POTUS signed the bill, rather ironically, US-based microchip maker Intel apologised to China following a backlash over its letter asking its suppliers not to source required components and materials from East Turkestan.
