WASHINGTON — The United States government put more than two dozen Chinese companies on a blacklist meant to block imports of products made with forced labour, bringing the number of targeted firms to more than 100.
Products made by the 29 companies added to the Department of Homeland Security's Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA) entity list range from hi-tech inputs, such as polysilicon, to food products like tomato paste, according to the department's announcement on Friday.
The restrictions will take effect on Monday.
The US Congress passed the UFLPA in 2021 to target imports from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in western China to prevent the entry of goods made under such conditions.
The law has since seen sanctions imposed on Chinese officials accused of being complicit in labour and human-rights abuses there as well as companies.
About two-thirds of Xinjiang's nearly 26 million people are members of ethnic minorities, including the mostly Muslim Uygur and Kazakh groups.
Accusations of human-rights abuses, mass detention and forced labour in Xinjiang, mainly targeting the Uygur population, have been regularly denied by Beijing.
"Today's enforcement actions make it clear - the United States will not tolerate forced labour in the goods entering our markets," Robert Silvers, US Homeland Security undersecretary for policy, said in Friday's announcement.
"We urge companies to take responsibility, know their supply chains and act ethically."
The companies named in Friday's announcement included those based in Xinjiang, such as Xinjiang Nonferrous Metals Industry Group, and some in other provinces and municipalities, like Tianjin Tianwei Food Company, which source commodities from the region for their final products.
Photo: South China Morning Post
Xinjiang Daqo New Energy Company, another newly targeted firm, produces high-purity polysilicon materials, which are used in semiconductors and solar panels.
The US government "has reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable information, that Xinjiang Daqo … sources silicon powder from" Xinjiang, the Homeland Security Department said.
Most of the newly targeted companies are in the agricultural sector, while the others mine and process copper, lithium, beryllium, nickel, manganese and other metals.
The UFLPA allows for a "rebuttable presumption" that any materials produced in Xinjiang are at risk of being tainted with forced labour, creating a "guilty-until-proven-innocent" principle for the products of companies on the law's entity list.
Companies can appeal if they provide "clear and convincing" evidence to customs authorities that their supply chains are free of forced labour.