US twist against Beijing, accused of genocide of Uyghurs
Law banning imports from the Chinese province of Xinjiang, sanctions against Chinese high-tech and biotechnology firms: the United States on Thursday strengthened its arsenal against Beijing.
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Relentlessly deploring these violations and threats to US national security, the administration of President Joe Biden has stepped up economic sanctions against Chinese interests in recent months, contributing to the deterioration of diplomatic relations with Beijing.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Commerce launched the offensive by placing around 30 entities on a blacklist restricting sensitive exports. Then the Treasury banned American nationals from doing business with eight high-tech companies, including the world’s number 1 drone DJI, which had already been on the Commerce Department’s blacklist for two years. Finally, the Senate on Thursday unanimously approved a law banning the importation into the United States of a wide range of products made in Xinjiang.
Unprecedented surveillance
In detail, the Ministry of Commerce and the Treasury have decided to target Chinese high technology, which would be used to violate the rights of the Uyghur population, mainly Muslim, in the region of Xinjiang (northwest). Human rights groups have reported that China is exercising unprecedented surveillance over this population, including research using DNA and the use of artificial intelligence for facial recognition.
“Scientific research in biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. Unfortunately, the People’s Republic of China chooses to use these technologies to control its people and repress members of ethnic and religious minority groups, ”lamented US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, to justify the new sanctions.
Research institutes targeted by the latest US actions include centers focused on blood transfusions, bioengineering and toxicology.
High-tech in the service of repression
It “shows how private companies in China’s defense and surveillance technology sectors are actively cooperating with the government in its efforts to suppress members of minority ethnic and religious groups,” said the Under-Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. financial intelligence, Brian Nelson. “The Treasury remains committed to ensuring that the US financial system and US investors do not support these activities,” he added.
A total of 37 entities were added to the Commerce Department’s list of companies accused of being involved in activities “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States.” The list includes Chinese companies but also firms from Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey, according to the document due to be published in the official gazette on Friday.
Xinjiang imports banned
Concretely, Washington has decided to restrict sensitive exports to the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutes because of its biotechnology work, including “alleged brain control weapons,” he explains. he.
Experts, witnesses and the US government say more than a million Uyghurs and other Turkish-speaking Muslims are being held in camps. In addition to the forced sterilization of women, China is accused of imposing forced labor.
The United States has called the campaign genocide and, citing human rights concerns, plans to boycott official representation at the Beijing Winter Games next year. China says these are vocational training centers, and like many Western countries, the government is seeking to reduce the appeal of radical Islam following deadly attacks.
The text adopted in Congress on Thursday deals a blow by banning products made in whole or in part in Xinjiang, unless companies are able to prove to customs officials that the products were not made with forced labor. It has yet to be signed by Joe Biden.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio, one of the authors of the bill, welcomed the fact that we can no longer make Americans “unwitting accomplices in the atrocities, in the genocide committed by the Chinese Communist Party”.
Xinjiang is a major source of cotton supply. The Workers Rights Consortium, which monitors factories, estimates that 20% of clothing imported into the United States each year contains material from that region.
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