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Washington, D.C – Congressman Nathaniel Moran (TX-01), member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, celebrated the passage of his legislation, H.R. 4039, No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act, which prohibits funds to the Department of State or the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to finance international projects in partnership with entities that import products mined, produced, or manufactured in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, commonly known for the genocide and forced labor of the Uyghur people.

On June 21, 2023, H.R. 4039 was marked up in the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was reported favorably out of the committee. This week, the No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote.

“The passage of No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act is an important step in showing the U.S. government’s commitment to confronting the abuses of the Chinese Communist Party. As a Chinese dissidents and human rights activist, I’ve experienced first-hand the extent that the Chinese government is willing to go to maintain power. After years of evidence and brave survivors speaking out, the world can no longer ignore the Uyghur genocide. It is imperative for our consciences to remove all U.S. funding from the Uyghur region. I am grateful for Representative Moran’s leadership on this resolution and the cosponsors who endorsed it,” said Dr. Rev. Bob Fu, Founder and President of ChinaAid.

“Uyghurs worldwide are thankful to Representative Moran and the U.S. Congress for passing a bill which ensures that our tax dollars do not fund ongoing atrocity crimes and modern-day slavery. This bill also sends a powerful message globally that the United States will continue to exercise all options to ensure that we end complicity in forced labor,” said Omer Kanat, Executive Director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

Background:

The Chinese Communist Party is committing genocide against the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China, repressing ethnic minorities for practicing their faith, detaining people in “reeducation centers” and ultimately using them for forced labor in the XUAR. This region of China is essential to their global supply chain, where many basic goods such as yarn, textiles, bricks, cotton, polysilicon, are produced using forced labor. 

While the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act prohibited goods made wholly or partly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region from entering U.S. supply chains, we must ensure that the United States is not developing international contracts for strategic projects with partners overseas that source goods or raw materials from the Xinjiang region. 

H.R. 4039 will prohibit funds to the Department of State or the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to finance global projects in partnership with companies or organizations that import products mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or partly from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China.

A video of Congressman’s remarks can be found HERE.

A transcript of Congressman Moran’s remarks on the House floor can be found below.

“Thank you, Madam Speaker and thank you, Chairwoman Kim.

I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 4039, the No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act, and I urge my colleagues to vote in support of this important measure.

Slavery in any form is repugnant and morally wrong. And, America—the home of the brave and the land of the free—should not be complicit in the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide, oppression, and enslavement of Uyghur Muslims.

Right now, the Chinese Communist Party is using over 100,000 Uyghur Muslims as slave labor. The No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act will ensure that the U.S. plays no part in this atrocity.

Specifically, H.R. 4039 prohibits the State Department and USAID from developing or designing international contracts with companies that import or source any raw materials or goods that were manufactured, produced, or mined from the Xinjiang region of China.

My legislation would also require a report to Congress identifying all violations in the previous year with a plan to improve enforcement and compliance.

Xinjiang is an important region to China’s economy. It represents one-sixth of China’s land mass and is home to most of their cotton, coal, and natural gas reserves. It is considered the “core hub” for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is China’s primary tool to exert economic influence across the globe.

Many basic goods that we consider to be part of our everyday lives are being produced by forced labor in Xinjiang – raw materials like yarn, bricks, nails, cotton, hair products, gloves, and polysilicon, which is commonly used for solar panel manufacturing – all essential resources for global commerce.

But, there is no excuse for the United States to continue in any partnership with companies that do business in Xinjiang and perpetuate these gross human rights abuses that the CCP has been committing against ethnic minorities for decades.

In addition to those enslaved, between 1 and 2 million people have been detained arbitrarily by the CCP and placed in what they call “reeducation centers.” This is where they have little to no freedom and undergo intense indoctrination at the hands of the Communist Chinese Party.

Many who have endured these centers note that they were just paid two pennies or less to make a pair of gloves. Those who are enslaved are unable to leave, see their families, or communicate with loved ones.

The CCP’s tactics of threats, intimidation, confinement, and physical and emotional abuse is intended to oppress its people, force assimilation, and—in the process—grow its economy and its influence worldwide.

Victims have no hope of life elsewhere. They know they will be monitored by police through oppressive surveillance systems. Survivors recount that the CCP cancel passports and lure minorities to China only then to detain them and use them for forced labor.

The CCP reels in Uyghurs by offering free health services, and then invades their lives and their privacy by taking their DNA, their fingerprints, and blood samples, which are then exported to malign actors otherwise. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of their captivity and their oppression.

If that is the society that the CCP is creating, then we in the United States must act aggressively and immediately to make perfectly clear that we will not condone such brutality and such a cruel regime, and—what’s more—the United States will not be a party to these atrocities.

America must continue to act with strength on the foreign stage. We cannot allow totalitarian regimes to grow in strength and influence around the world. If we do, then what is happening to the Uyghurs in China will surely follow wherever China builds its empire. We simply cannot let this happen.

We in the United States must stand for morality; we must stand for goodness; and we must stand for freedom. I call on my colleagues to do just that by passing HR 4039.

I yield back.”

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