The Department of State issued the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA) Report to Congress; Treasury is sanctioning two Chinese government officials for their connection to serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang; and the Department of Homeland Security-led interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force added of three PRC entities to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List.
Effective December 11, 2023, goods produced by COFCO Sugar, Jingweida Technology Group and Anhui Xinya New Materials Co.. will be restricted from entering the United States as a result of the companies’ participation in business practices that target members of persecuted groups, including Uyghur minorities in the PRC.
The interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF), chaired by DHS, voted to add the three companies to the list and the announcement brings the total number of entities designated on the UFLPA Entity List to 30 companies.
“We have shown again through today’s enforcement actions that the United States will not tolerate forced labor in the goods that come into this country,” said the Under Secretary for Policy, Robert Silvers, who serves as Chair of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force. “Companies must conduct due diligence and know their supply chains. The interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force will continue to designate entities known to violate our laws, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will continue its vigilant enforcement at our ports.”
COFCO Sugar Holding Co., Ltd., headquartered in Xinjiang, is a company that refines, produces, and imports sugar, and trades and produces various agricultural products, including sugar, fruit (including tomatoes), and vegetable processing. COFCO Sugar participated in government-sponsored poverty alleviation and cooperated with the local government to complete labor transfers. COFCO Sugar has visited the homes of persecuted minorities in Xinjiang villages for recruiting these persecuted minorities to work in its facilities.
Sichuan Jingweida Technology Group Co., Ltd., headquartered in Sichuan Province, PRC, is a company that produces magnetic devices including network transformers, network filters, power transformers, inductors, radio frequency filters, and other devices. Jingweida Technology is a documented participant in government-sponsored labor transfer programs. Jingweida Technology and the government of Awati County in Xinjiang worked together to transfer persecuted ethnic minorities from Awati County to Jingweida Technology.
Anhui Xinya New Materials Co., Ltd., headquartered in Anhui Province, PRC, is a company that produces functional fibers, special fiber yarns, other textile materials made with hemp and materials made with cotton, wool, Tencel, and other products. Xinya New Materials worked with an established government-sponsored labor transfer program, Xinjiang Aid, to recruit and transfer persecuted minorities from Pishan County in Xinjiang to work in its facility in Anhui Province. The FLETF determined that the activities of Xinya New Materials satisfy the criteria for addition to the UFLPA Entity List under Section 2(d)(2)(B)(ii) of the UFLPA.
In a related action, OFAC sanctioned two PRC government officials for their connection to ongoing serious human rights abuse in Xinjiang. Treasury is taking this action in conjunction with the Department of State’s (State) issuance of the “Report to Congress on the Imposition of Sanctions Pursuant to Section 6(a) of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA) of 2020, P.L. 116-145.”
Gao Qi (Gao) and Hu Lianhe (Hu) are being sanctioned as required under UHRPA.
Gao has served as the leader of the Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (Yili Prefecture) Public Security Bureau, an organization subordinate to the previously designated Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB), and as Yili Prefecture’s vice governor.
Hu has served as the Deputy Office Director for the Xinjiang Work Coordination Small Group of the Central Committee (XWCSG) since 2012. The XWCSG, first formed in 2000, has been instrumental in shaping and implementing Xinjiang policies.
The State Department released Report to Congress on the Imposition of Sanctions Pursuant to Section 6(a) of the UHRPA of 2020, P.L. 116-145 and fact sheet,
China Hawks Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a joint statement deriding the sanctions actions as feeble and ineffectual:
"While we welcome this news, the Biden Administration has dragged its feet to implement sanctions under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA) for far too long. Most alarmingly absent from the administration’s designations is Ma Xingrui, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) boss in Xinjiang, who is responsible for implementing the CCP’s genocidal policies against the Uyghurs and other ethnic groups.
"The administration must not allow Ma’s status as a CCP Politburo member to shield him from U.S. targeted sanctions in the continued pursuit of a failed engagement strategy. Secretary Blinken must explain why the top CCP official in Xinjiang—who implements Xi Jinping’s genocide-- does not meet the criteria for U.S. sanctions. If the administration refuses to hold the major perpetrators of the Uyghur genocide accountable, Congress will take the lead on human rights where the administration has thrown in the towel."
The UFLPA, signed into law by President Biden in December 2021, prohibits goods from being imported into the United States that are either produced in Xinjiang, or by entities identified on the UFLPA Entity List, unless the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) determines, by clear and convincing evidence, that the goods were not produced with forced labor.
CBP began enforcing the UFLPA in June 2022. Since then, CBP has reviewed more than 6,000 shipments valued at more than $2 billion under the UFLPA.
The FLETF – which also includes the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Departments of Labor, State, the Treasury, Justice and Commerce – will continue to consider future designations to the UFLPA Entity List.
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