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Washington, DC -- Today, Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) introduced the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act, which would require publicly traded companies to have a full understanding of their supply chains and report any links to Xinjiang forced labor as part of their annual disclosure to investors. More than 100,000 people are estimated to be working under forced conditions in China, either in facilities located within internment camps in Xinjiang or through state-sponsored labor transfer schemes that pair workers with work assignments in other Chinese provinces. According to reports, the workers produce goods for some of the best-known clothing, automotive, and technology brands in the world. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives last year 253-163.

"Consumers and investors have a right to know if their hard-earned dollars are going to companies whose supply chains horrifically utilize the forced labor of religious minorities in mass internment camps," said Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. "The Chinese government’s brutal campaign against Uyghurs has infected global supply chains and corporate America cannot stand idly by. Products made with forced labor have no place on American store shelves.”

Wexton’s legislation directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to create rules under which publicly traded companies would disclose annually imports of manufactured goods and materials -- including electronics, textiles, automobile parts, polysilicon, wigs and hair extensions, and shoes -- that originate in or are sourced in part from Xinjiang. 

The U.S. banned imports manufactured with forced labor in 1930, and U.S. companies are required to exercise due diligence in order to know their foreign suppliers, including potential supply chain links to forced labor. However, the repressive environment in Xinjiang makes auditing of supply chains nearly impossible, and a number of international auditing organizations recently stopped operating in the region due to restricted access to workers and increased difficulty meeting auditing standards. Despite all the recent attention on forced labor, imports from Xinjiang to the U.S. remarkably doubled last year.

Congresswoman Wexton was recently appointed to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Wexton also penned an op-ed in The Hill this week sharing her thoughts on how the Biden administration can work with Congress to confront human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including through the passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act and Congressman Jim McGovern’s (D-MA) Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, of which Wexton is a cosponsor. 

Virginia’s 10th District is home to one of the largest Uyghur diaspora populations in the U.S. Last September, Wexton hosted a roundtable with Uyghur constituents whose families and loved ones have been victims of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act is cosponsored by Representatives André Carson (D-IN), David Cicilline (D-RI), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), and Tom Suozzi (D-NY).

The full text of the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act can be found here.

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