US House Passes Bill to Ban Imports From China's Xinjiang

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US House of Representatives passed a bill by a vote of 428 to 1 banning imports from China’s Xinjiang made with forced labor and threatening sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for allegedly persecuting the Muslim minority of the region.

The goal of the bill, passed on Wednesday, is to ensure that "goods made with forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China do not enter the United States market."

The legislation targets "goods, wares, articles, and merchandise imported directly from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region or made by Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tibetans, or members of other persecuted groups in China."

In addition, the bill requires the American president to impose sanctions on officials responsible for persecuting minorities and facilitating the use of involuntary labor.

The legislative text accuses China of arbitrarily imprisoning as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and members of other Muslim minority groups in a system of extrajudicial mass internment camps.

The prisoners are forced to produce "textiles, electronics, food products, shoes, tea, and handicrafts" at a network of government-subsidized factories in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China, the legislation says.

In July, the Senate passed its version of the bill with a unanimous vote.