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China denounces US bans on imports from Xinjiang

In this file photo, taken on May 31, 2019, Uighur men are seen leaving a mosque after prayers in Hotan in China’s northwest Xinjiang region. (By AFP)

China says bans by the United States on imports of some products from the region of Xinjiang sabotage global supply chains.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday the US restrictions “violate the rules of international trade, and disrupt global industrial, supply and value chains.”

“The so-called forced labor issue is entirely fabricated by some organizations and people in the US and the West,” he said at a daily news conference in Beijing, referring to the US pretext for the imposition of the bans.

Wenbin stressed his country’s determination to take all necessary measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese firms.

The US administration on Monday announced bans on products from five specific entities, but pulled back from plans for a broad import ban on cotton and tomato from Xinjiang. The new restrictions were announced over the entities’ alleged use of forced labor by Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang to make the products.

China rejects accusations of discriminating against the mostly Muslim-Turkic ethnic group of Uighurs — who make up about 45 percent of the population in Xinjiang — and accuses exiled separatist groups of planning attacks in the resource-rich region, which is strategically located on the borders of Central Asia.

The new US bans are likely to further inflame tensions between Beijing and Washington.

The US and China have been at odds over a range of issues; but recently, Washington has taken a markedly more aggressive posture against Beijing. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has openly called for regime change in “Communist China.”

Washington’s aggressive posturing against Beijing comes shortly before the US presidential election in November.


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