US Blacklists 11 Chinese Companies

On Monday, the US Department of Commerce added 11 Chinese firms implicated in what it called human rights violations in connection with China's treatment of its Uighurs in Xinjiang in western China to the US economic blacklist.

The Department said that the companies were involved in the use of forced labor by Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups. These include a number of textile companies and two government firms that have been performing genetic analyzes used to advance the persecution of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, reports Reuters.

Blacklisted firms cannot buy components from US companies without US government approval.

This was the third group of companies and organizations in China to be added to the US blacklist, following two rounds in which the Trump administration named 37 entities that it claimed were complicit in China's repression in Xinjiang.

"Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labour and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.

In May the Chinese Foreign Ministry criticised US entity list additions, arguing the United States "overstretched the concept of national security, abused export control measures, violated the basic norms governing international relations, interfered in China's internal affairs."

The companies added to the blacklist include Nanchang O-Film Tech, a supplier to Apple's iPhone, hosted by Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in December 2017, according to O-Film 's website. It is also a supplier to Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft, according to the April conference report. The US corporations did not comment immediately.

The list includes two subsidiaries of Beijing Genomics Institute, a genomics company with ties to the Chinese government, Senator Marco Rubio said.

He said the additions will "ensure that US technology does not aid the Chinese Communist Party's crimes against humanity and egregious human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, including the forced collection of DNA."

Also added are KTK Group Co, which produces more than 2,000 products used to build high-speed trains, from electronics to seats; and Tanyuan Technology Co, which assembles high thermal conductive graphite reinforced aluminum composites.

Another company is Changji Esquel Textile Co, which Esquel Group launched in 2009. Esquel Group produces clothing for Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss.

In a letter to Ross on Monday, Esquel Chief Executive John Chen asked its unit be removed from the list. "Esquel does not use forced labour, and we never will use forced labour. We absolutely and categorically oppose forced labour," Chen wrote.

Efforts to reach other companies in China for comments were unsuccessful outside normal business hours.

Also on the blacklist is Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories Co On May 1, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it stopped imports of hair products from the country, citing signs of forced labour.

On July 1, CBP confiscated a shipment of nearly 13 tons of hair products worth more than $800,000 worth of human hair in Newark, which it said originated in Xinjiang.