U.S. federal officials have slapped sanctions on 11 Chinese companies that they say engage in human rights violations, including forced labor, against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang region.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Sunday, July 19 that some Chinese companies scrambling to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) for domestic use and export are using Uighur forced labor through a “contentious government-sponsored program that experts say often puts people to work against their will.”

In a Monday, July 20 announcement, the U.S. Department of Commerce identified 11 Chinese companies that it says have waged a “campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, involuntary collection of biometric data and genetic analyses” against Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.

The sanctions restrict the companies’ access to U.S. technology and other goods. They also serve as a wakeup call to any U.S. companies that might be sourcing from the blacklisted entities, which include textile firms, like Changji Esquel Textile Co. and Nanjing Synergy Textile Co., that reportedly act as suppliers to Western brands. Changji Esquel and Nanjing are among those accused of operating factories using Xinjiang workers who are allegedly forced to labor under a Beijing-backed internment program.

“Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labor and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “This action will ensure that our goods and technologies are not used in the Chinese Communist Party’s despicable offensive against defenseless Muslim minority populations.”

“Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labor and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” said @SecretaryRoss.

Read more: https://t.co/Whm19jaU1r pic.twitter.com/CclEjkzbjX

— U.S. Commerce Dept. (@CommerceGov) July 20, 2020

The Washington Post reported that Esquel denied any wrongdoing in a letter to Ross. The company said it doesn’t use forced labor. “We have been employing willing members of the Uighur community and other minority groups since 1995 on a non-discriminatory basis,” the Esquel letter said.

As part of the sanctioning, the Commerce Department accused two companies, Xinjiang Silk Road BGI and Beijing Liuhe BGI, of helping conduct “genetic analyses used to further the repression” of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities. Further details weren’t available.

The Chinese companies the Commerce Department is sanctioning in connection with the practice of forced labor involving Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups are:

• Changji Esquel Textile Co. Ltd.
• Hefei Bitland Information Technology Co. Ltd.
• Hefei Meiling Co. Ltd.
• Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories Co. Ltd.
• Hetian Taida Apparel Co., Ltd.
• KTK Group
• Nanjing Synergy Textiles Co. Ltd.
• Nanchang O-Film Tech
• Tanyuan Technology Co. Ltd. 

The companies being sanctioned for allegedly conducting genetic analyses used to further the repression of Uighurs and other Muslims are:

• Xinjiang Silk Road BGI
• Beijing Liuhe BGI

As for The New York Times investigation, it found that 17 out of 51 companies producing PPE in Xinjiang use workers from the contentious labor transfer programs in which workers are allegedly compelled to labor against their will.

A New York Times video investigation identified Chinese companies using a contentious labor program for Uighurs to satisfy demand for P.P.E., some of which ended up in the U.S. and other countries https://t.co/KZspDJqGrZ

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) July 20, 2020

Some of the PPE products made with alleged forced Uighur labor have reportedly ended up in the United States and other countries, The New York Times reported.

“The (Xinjiang) companies produce equipment primarily for domestic use, but The Times identified several other companies outside Xinjiang that use Uighur labor and export globally,” the media outlet reported. “We traced a shipment of face masks to a medical supply company in the U.S. state of Georgia from a factory in China’s Hubei Province, where more than 100 Uighur workers had been sent. The workers are required to learn Mandarin and pledge their loyalty to China at weekly flag-raising ceremonies.”

In January 2019, North Carolina-based promo apparel supplier Badger Sportswear (asi/37876) stopped sourcing from Hetian Taida Apparel Co. after an Associated Press investigation indicated that the Xinjiang-based entity was using forced labor.

Since the scandal, Badger Sportswear says it has enhanced its social compliance program. The supplier says it’s audited all owned and contracted facilities and implemented an annual monitoring program. It’s also launched an online management system that enables the company to more effectively track closure of corrective actions at factories. Badger has trained 3,000 workers in its global supply chain on its code of conduct and worked to improve supply chain transparency.