NORMANDY, France – U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen requesting a detailed report on the Treasury Department’s enforcement of forced labor sanctions against those responsible for the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity faced by the Uyghur people in Communist China. They also asked why the Treasury Department has failed to issue new sanctions against the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a paramilitary organization with a 50 percent or more stake in more than 2,800 companies in China.

CCP Currently Enslaves More Than Three Million Uyghur Muslims for Forced Labor

“Uyghur Muslims are facing ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity. The Chinese

Communist Party (CCP) is currently holding at least 1.8 million Uyghurs in political prison camps, subjecting Uyghur women and girls to forced abortions and forced sterilizations, and

forcing Uyghurs to labor at an astounding scale. The CCP operates the world’s largest state-run forced labor program, enslaving more than 3 million Uyghurs today.”

Treasury Department Must Ensure Forced Labor Products Do Not Enter U.S. Markets

“Given the gravity and scope of the forced labor challenge, Congress passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) in December 2021. Nearly two years have passed since the

UFLPA was implemented. As a member of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF),

the U.S. Department of Treasury is a key implementing partner in ensuring the enforcement and

effectiveness of U.S. efforts to ensure that not a single good produced with Uyghur forced labor makes its way into U.S. markets. To that end, Congress granted Treasury significant sanctions authorities under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA), whose authorities were amended and expanded by the UFLPA to include the ability to sanction individuals involved in ‘serious human rights abuses in connection with forced labor.’”

Biden Admin is Failing to Issue New Labor Sanctions

“The Biden administration has no lack of tools to hold the CCP to account, and yet it has struggled to make full use of these authorities. UHRPA sanctions authorities, for example, have

only been used to designate two individuals for their role in violating Uyghur rights – neither for

their role in perpetrating forced labor. The Biden administration has even struggled to enforce sanctions already on the books, in particular, sanctions against the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a paramilitary organization with a 50 percent or more stake in more than 2,800 companies in China. Not only should XPCC be sanctioned to the fullest extent of the law, but Treasury should also sanction its subsidiaries.”

Click here to view the full letter.