Biden Administration Adds 37 Chinese Companies to Forced Labor List

The Biden administration said on Tuesday that it would block imports from more than three dozen Chinese companies, citing their alleged ties to forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China.

The administration’s move is the single largest batch of additions to a list of companies that are barred from bringing products into the United States because of concerns about human rights violations.

The action was taken under a 2021 law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which prevents the United States from importing products that are made in whole or in part in Xinjiang, a far-western region of China where the government has detained and surveilled large numbers of minorities, including Uyghurs.

China denies the presence of forced labor in Xinjiang, but the U.S. government has said the Chinese government uses forced labor, mass detentions and other coercive practices to subdue the region’s predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, particularly the Uyghurs.

The 37 entities that were added on Tuesday to a special list created by the law include subsidiaries of a major supplier of critical minerals, Zijin Mining. The New York Times reported in 2022 that Zijin Mining had links with labor transfer programs in Xinjiang.

The additions also include one of the world’s largest textile manufacturers, Huafu Fashion, and 25 of its subsidiaries. It’s not clear which retailers Huafu currently supplies, but H&M previously said that it had an indirect relationship with a mill belonging to Huafu Fashion and that it would cut those ties.