Nury A. Turkel, Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, said the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA) has become a "story of a missed opportunity" due to its lack of enforcement on the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) abuse of Uyghurs in China. Turkel made his comments in an article for Real Clear Politics.
"When the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) was signed into law on Dec. 23, 2021, it promised to be groundbreaking in moving U.S. supply chains away from the People's Republic of China," said Turkel. "The legislation built upon existing U.S. law to strengthen import bans on products derived from forced labor and authorized the imposition of sanctions on entities involved in forced labor. Yet now, more than three years into its passage, the UFLPA is more a story of a missed opportunity."
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in line with the Chinese government affirms religious freedom but restricts protections for religious practices to those deemed "normal," without clear definition, according to the 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom from the U.S. State Department. President Xi Jinping's government tightens control over religious groups, targeting specific ones that are regarded as threats. Discrimination extends to employment and housing, particularly affecting Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong. The U.S. imposes visa restrictions and export restrictions in response, maintaining China's designation as a Country of Particular Concern for severe religious freedom violations.
"It’s been known for decades that the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has rounded up as many as three million Uyghur people into industrial-scale concentration camps in China," said Tukel, according to Real Clear Politics. Turkel was born into one of these concentration camps where he suffered "malnutrition and abuse." He said the Uyghur camps are the "largest incarceration of an ethnoreligious group" since the Holocaust.
According to Real Clear Politics, Turkel said the passage of the UFLPA in 2019 was "a powerful way to educate America and the rest of the world about the genocide taking place in China, and the United States’ stance against it." However, he said the act would encourage U.S. consumers to move away from slave labor in China, but this has not happened. "Our inaction to enforce UFLPA has emboldened the CCP to expand its genocide and forced labor practices within China and abroad," Turkel said.
Turkel said one example is The Fufeng Group Limited, a Chinese company controlled by the CCP, which uses forced labor from Xinjiang's internment camps to produce food additives and starch-based products exported globally, including to the United States, according to Real Clear Politics. Despite U.S. sanctions on Xinjiang and Chinese officials for human rights abuses, Fufeng plans to establish a physical presence in the U.S. and continues to export products there. Turkel said, "Furthermore, although the U.S. Department of Commerce has been investigating Fufeng in connection with Fufeng’s dumping of products into the United States and the resulting injury to American industries since 2012, the agency has, to date, refused to send its officials to audit Fufeng and document its forced labor practices."
Nury A. Turkel is an attorney, author, and human rights advocate, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. He specializes in corporate governance, national security, digital authoritarianism, and forced labor issues. Turkel served as Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and has testified before Congress on Uyghur internment camps. He co-founded the Uyghur Human Rights Project and advises the World Uyghur Congress. Turkel was named in TIME's 100 Most Influential People and Fortune's 50 Greatest Leaders. He holds degrees in law and international relations and is the author of the memoir "No Escape: The True Story of China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs."
