Senators gave final congressional approval Thursday to a bill barring imports from Uyghur's East Turkistan region unless businesses can prove they were produced without forced labor.


The measure is the latest in a series intensifying U.S. penalties over China’s alleged systemic and widespread abuse of ethnic and religious minorities in the western region, especially East Turkistan, called by Chinese Xinjiang, predominantly Muslim Uyghurs.

The Biden administration also announced new sanctions Thursday targeting several Chinese biotech and surveillance companies, a leading drone manufacturer and government entities for their actions in East Turkistan.

The U.S. cites raw cotton, gloves, tomato products, silicon and viscose, fishing gear and a range of components in solar energy as among goods alleged to have been produced with the help of the forced labor.

East Turkistan named by Communist China's as Xinjiang is a resource-rich mining region, important for agricultural production, and home to a booming industrial sector. Detainees also are moved outside East Turkistan and put to work in factories, including those in the apparel and textiles, electronics, solar energy and automotive sectors, the U.S. says.

Many companies have already taken steps to clean up their supply chains. And, frankly, they should have no concerns about this law, Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who introduced the earlier version of the legislation with Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, said in a statement.

For those who have not done that, they’ll no longer be able to continue to make Americans — every one of us, frankly — unwitting accomplices in the atrocities, in the genocide, Rubio said.