In opposition to China’s unsettling treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region, Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) has teamed up with Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) to introduce legislation in hopes of alleviating the suffering of those at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The bill, known as the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act, would require publicly traded companies to “review and disclose any links that their products may have to Uyghur forced labor in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”
Rep. Gimenez called the Chinese government a “murderous Communist regime” that is committing “ongoing genocide against the Uyghur people.”
“The murderous Communist regime in Beijing continues to profit off of forced labor and the ongoing genocide against the Uyghur people of East Turkestan,” said Rep. Giménez. “Our bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act is a landmark piece of legislation that codifies America’s commitment to freedom, democracy, and Human Rights by ensuring that products manufactured in Communist China, using forced and exploitative labor, are adequately labeled as such.”
Moreover, Rep. Wexton relayed her thoughts on the introduction of the bill as well, stating that “products made with forced labor have no place on the American store shelves.”
“The American people deserve to know whether the clothes they wear or the technology they use every day was produced using forced labor. To make that happen we need greater scrutiny of goods sourced from the Chinese government’s prolific forced labor scheme involving the detention of tens of thousands of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. My Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act takes the necessary next steps to build on major bipartisan progress Congress has made to stand up against the Chinese government’s exploitation of Uyghurs and crack down on this human rights atrocity,” said Rep. Wexton.
This is not the first time that Florida legislators have sought to address this issue.
In June, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a memo to his colleagues looking to make sure that they were aware that the Chinese fast fashion company, Shein, uses cotton connected to slave labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Moreover, the company “recently hired lobbyists in the U.S. to advocate on its behalf to Congress.”
Because of this notion, Sen. Rubio sent a letter to his fellow Senators urging them to unite on this issue and “hold Shein accountable.”
In December of 2021, President Joe Biden (D) signed Rubio’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) into law.
