"This is a horrific tragedy," he said of the ongoing treatment of Muslim Uyghurs.
The bill's rebuttable presumption is key, he said, in that "the presumption of innocence shifts" to companies to prove that "their supply chain is clear and clean of this kind of horrific behavior."
"It's hard for anybody in America to believe that there's forced labor camps. People being forced to work with no pay," Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), a commissioner, stated on Wednesday.
"The only thing that the Chinese government will recognize is if we prevent them from continuing to export these goods, using forced labor, into our marketplace," he said.
Some of these forced labor cases in the report occur within the internment camps, while others involve detainees being sent to factories upon their release from the camps. In still other cases, minorities are forced into labor without even being sent to the camps.
All this labor is done under the guise of "job training" or "poverty alleviation," as the Chinese government claims.
Good commonly made with forced labor include textiles such as clothing, bedding, and carpet, shoes, tea, electronics, and food products such as noodles and cakes.
Companies suspected of directly employing forced labor, or sourcing from suppliers suspected of using forced labor, include Adidas, Calvin Klein, Coca-Cola, Costco, H&M, Kraft Heinz, Nike, Patagonia, and Tommy Hilfiger.
The company Badger Sportswear announced in January of 2019 that it was ending its partnership with Hetian Taida Apparel because of its suspected ties to forced labor of detainees in Xinjiang.
Audits of which factories in the region are using forced labor will prove difficult, the report said, due to residents and detainees who may be afraid to speak out about poor conditions. Companies should instead assume that any goods sourced to the region are made with forced labor.
On March 5, an AP investigation reported that "mostly Muslim ethnic Uighurs" detained in camps were afterwards forced in work in a heavily-guarded factory within the supply chains of U.S. tech companies.
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A document leaked in February from a local government authority in Xinjiang listed the names of around 3,000 Uyghurs under surveillance, with 484 being detained. Many of those were imprisoned for religious reasons or for family the religious or political behavior of family members.
Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.