LETTER: On March 17, 2021, the UK's Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee of cross-party Members of Parliament (MPs) released their report, "Uighur forced labour in Xinjiang and UK value chains".
The report compiles news reports, collect evidence from companies in the supply chain and make recommendations in the form of "accelerating proposals to amend and strengthen the Modern Slavery Act 2015, to enhance the transparency and accessibility of modern slavery statements and to develop options for civil penalties in the event of noncompliance" together with the call for targeted sanctions of Chinese and international businesses concerned.
In the United States, the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act/UIGHUR (2020) and the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act (2020) were already passed under the Trump administration.
UIGHUR provides for a statutory duty on the US President, Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to report to the relevant committees in Congress – Senate and House – for subsequent action in the form of sanctions to be taken.
Under the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act, all goods manufactured or produced in Xinjiang are automatically presumed to be sourced from forced or indentured labour under penal sanctions, unless the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) determined otherwise.
With these legislative weapons in his arsenal, President Joe Biden should be well-poised to exert pressure on China. His public image, however, suffers from his track record of being a "close and reliable friend of China".
Now that he has taken office, Biden has been on record in calling for tougher response to China's human rights abuses in Xinjiang (see e.g., "Biden says China to face repercussions on human rights", Reuters, Feb 17, 2021).
Other than that, in his telephone call with China's leader, Xi Jinping, last February, he emphasised "the US priority of preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region" and also "also voiced concern about Beijing's 'coercive and unfair' trade practices and rights issues, such as [the] Hong Kong crackdown, … and increasingly assertive actions in Asia, including toward Taiwan".
While a "quick-fix" solution is definitively not forthcoming and not something expected by all stakeholders concerned, getting China (directly and indirectly) to roll-back its systematic oppression and repression of the Uighurs requires concerted international pressure led by the US under Biden.
It is hoped that by "adding" Xinjiang to the list of China's "misconduct" in the eyes of the international community, the Chinese Communist party (CPP) would come to the realisation that, all in all, its actions have a subversive impact on regional and world peace and stability, and would therefore take some concrete measures for "self-rectification".
JASON LOH SEONG WEI
Head of Social, Law & Human Rights
EMIR Research
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times