The initial hearing regarding the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act takes place in Congress.
According to a press release, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to attain a trade advantage and promote its governance system on other nations by taking advantage of the liberal trade policies of the Western world and utilizing compulsory labor.
During the initial congressional hearing on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who serves as the Chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), warned that American firms attempting to circumvent the legislation by utilizing compulsory labor will be subject to legal consequences and public scrutiny.
Laura Murphy, Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery for the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University revealed the number of companies involved.
“Our research team has identified 55,000 companies, large and small, operating in the Uyghur Region,” Murphy said.
A hearing presided over by Smith included a team of experts who provided testimony on the subject of compulsory labor. The panel featured Anasuya Syam, the Director of Human Rights and Trade Policy at the Human Trafficking Legal Center, along with Laura Murphy, Kit Conklin and Elfidar Iltebir.
"We have published in-depth investigations that have documented at least 150 specific companies in the Uyghur Region and elsewhere in China for which there is significant evidence of participation in state-sponsored labor transfer programs that are tantamount to forced labor," Murphy said. "These companies are hiding in plain sight."
Since June 2021, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has confiscated goods worth more than $961 million under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFPLA), a bipartisan law supported by Smith and Rep. Jim McGovern. The UFPLA's purpose is to stop the import of items produced using forced labor, particularly from China's Xinjiang region where the Chinese Communist Party has been accused of committing genocide against the Uyghur and other minority communities.
An additional hearing is expected to take place against forced labor. There are numerous issues to be addressed. Ultimately, the goal is to eliminate any exploitation.
According to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) is the most substantial law related to China that Congress has passed in the last two decades. If executed successfully, UFLPA will levy significant punishments on the People's Republic of China for its alleged genocide against Uyghur and other minority communities, as well as prevent corporations from gaining profits by employing compulsory labor in their supply chains.
The purpose of this hearing, which occurred eighteen months following the implementation of the UFLPA, is to assess the advancements made, recognize areas where implementation has not met expectations and recommend measures to enhance the implementation to accomplish the legislation's objectives. The ultimate aim is to eradicate compulsory labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and eliminate it as a global center for this exploitative practice.
