Biden Administration Prepares to Blacklist More Chinese Firms on Concern of Xinjiang Surveillance

UTC by Bhushan Akolkar · 3 min read
Biden Administration Prepares to Blacklist More Chinese Firms on Concern of Xinjiang Surveillance
Photo: President Joe Biden / Facebook

The Biden administration is pressing China hard on accusations of forced labor of the Uyghur population in the Xinjiang region. On the other hand China continues to defend its policies.

In fresh development on Friday, July 8, the Biden administration is looking forward to blacklisting more Chinese firms. As per the Reuters report, the US will be adding 10 more Chinese firms to its economic blacklist over concerns of alleged human rights abuses through high-tech surveillance in China’s Xinjiang province.

As a result, the US Commerce Department will initiate further action in this direction. The move comes amid allegations of forced labor in the Xinjiang province. the addition of ten more companies to the US Commerce Department Entity List is part of the Biden administration’s efforts in order to hold China accountable for violating human rights, the sources said.

The latest blacklisting will be in continuation of the measures initiated by the US Commerce Department in June. Last month, the Commerce Department reported:

“It is blacklisting five Chinese companies “for accepting or utilizing forced labor in the implementation of the People’s Republic of China’s campaign of repression against Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”

The Joe Biden administration has stressed that there have been increasing reports of exploitation of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. The identity of the people that have been on the blacklist of the Commerce Department hasn’t been clear.

Reports are that the Commerce Department will be blacklisting a few more companies to the blacklist on Friday. So far, there are no specific comments from the White House or the US Commerce Department in this regard.

Chinese Firms Claim No Wrong Doing

China maintains its stand of no wrongdoing. It outrightly denies the accusations of genocide and forced labor on Xinjiang’s Uyghur population. Besides, China also defends its policies to root out separatists and religious extremists. China also notes that these bad actors have stirred up tensions between Uyghur’s Muslim ethnic group and China’s largest ethnic group Han. On Friday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin responded to the development stating:

“The Chinese side will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and rejects US attempts to interfere in China’s internal affairs”.

It looks like this is the beginning of the next cold war. The world’s two biggest economies take the battle further. On one hand, China has declared a war on cryptocurrencies banning Bitcoin and all other kinds of crypto transactions. While on the other hand, some of the top financial firms in the US have started pouring millions of dollars into BTC.

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