- Pressure mounts to fully implement Uyghur forced labor law - Republican letter seeks details on Treasury sanctions

Republican senators on Thursday urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to share how the department plans to enforce and expand sanctions to combat use of forced labor in China.

The effort, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), comes amid heightened calls for stricter enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a two-year old law that assumes any product made with goods even partially sourced from the Xinjiang region of China is tied to forced labor unless a company can prove otherwise.

US government and media reports show that Uyghurs and other Muslim citizens have been held in prison camps in Xinjiang and forced to harvest cotton, for example. China has repeatedly denied that it is committing such human rights abuses.

The Department of Treasury “is a key implementing partner in ensuring the enforcement and effectiveness of US efforts to ensure that not a single good produced with Uyghur forced labor makes its way into US markets,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Yellen. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) joined Blackburn in signing the letter.

Lawmakers asked Treasury to produce a list of individuals and entities it’s sanctioned in connection with Uyghur forced labor, as well as a “detailed explanation of Treasury’s activities to enforce these sanctions.” They asked for the report by June 21.

The letter noted that Treasury was granted authorities under the 2022 Uyghur forced labor law and the 2012 Global Magnitsky Act to establish sanctions for human rights abuses. Treasury is part of a Department of Homeland Security-led task force that focuses on keeping goods made with forced labor out of the US.

“The Biden administration has no lack of tools to hold the CCP to account, and yet it has struggled to make full use of these authorities,” the letter said.

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Yellen testified at a March hearing before the Senate Finance Committee that she agreed Treasury and the Biden administration should impose sanctions on companies linked to human rights violations occurring in Xinjiang. “There is no appeasement, I want to assure you on this matter,” Yellen said at the time.

Lawmakers also asked Treasury to explain specifically why it hasn’t taken further measures against subsidiaries of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a state-owned enterprise. The Treasury Department under the Trump administration in 2020 sanctioned XPCC over alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs. The lawmakers asked the department to issue a plan to sanction XPCC ‘s subsidiaries this year.

XPCC was also put on a Homeland Security list in 2022 that points to companies the agency says produce or manufacture goods from forced labor in Xinjiang. DHS recently expanded the list of allegedly problematic companies and has pledged to broaden it even more this year.

Banning Chinese Battery Makers

Also on Thursday, lawmakers including Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced that they sent a letter to Homeland Security calling on the department to put a few Chinese battery makers on its banned entity list.

The letter alleges, for example, that battery maker Gotion High Tech does business with companies linked to forced labor, including XPCC.

The forced labor enforcement boost comes amid bipartisan efforts to counter China as an economic and national security threat, as well as to encourage manufacturing closer to home.