The US on Thursday unleashed a volley of actions to censure China’s treatment of Uighurs, with lawmakers voting to curb trade and new sanctions slapped on the world’s top consumer drone maker.
The US Senate unanimously voted to make the US the first country to ban virtually all imports from China’s Xinjiang region over concerns of the prevalence of forced labor.
“We know it’s happening at an alarming, horrific rate with the genocide that we now witness being carried out,” said US Senator Marco Rubio, a driver behind the act, which already passed the House of Representatives and which the White House says US President Joe Biden will sign.
Photo: AP
After prolonged negotiations to secure its passage, Rubio lifted objections and the Senate confirmed veteran diplomat Nicholas Burns as ambassador to China.
Burns, a widely respected former ambassador to Greece and NATO, and a professor at Harvard, has called the treatment of Uighurs “genocide,” and described China as an “aggressor” in its relationship with Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
“Our responsibility is to make Taiwan a tough nut to crack,” Burns said, while rejecting a suggestion that the US ditch its longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity,” which does not say whether it would intervene in an invasion of Taiwan.
Some US businesses had voiced unease about the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which bans the import of all goods from the region unless companies offer verifiable proof that production did not involve slavery.
Xinjiang is a major source of cotton, with an estimated 20 percent of the garments imported each year into the US including some material from the region.
Rights experts, witnesses and the US government say that more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims are incarcerated in camps.
The Biden administration also fired off a round of sanctions over surveillance in Xinjiang, where rights groups say China has been honing new technologies to keep tabs on Uighurs.
Companies hit by US Department of the Treasury sanctions include SZ DJI Technology, by far the world’s largest producer of consumer drones of the type used in filmmaking and aerial photography, with more than 70 percent of the global market.
The US had already restricted trade exports to the company, but the new sanctions would criminalize any US investment in it.
The US Department of Commerce also restricted sensitive exports to the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutes over biotechnology work, including “purported brain-control weaponry,” a notice said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
‘NARWHAL’: The indigenous submarine completed its harbor acceptance test recently and is now under heavy guard as it undergoes tests in open waters, a source said The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, yesterday began sea trials, sailing out of the Port of Kaohsiung, a military source said. Also known as the “Narwhal,” the vessel departed from CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard at about 8am, where it had been docked. More than 10 technicians and military personnel were on deck, with several others standing atop the sail. After recently completing its harbor acceptance test, the vessel has started a series of sea-based trials, including tests of its propulsion and navigational systems, while partially surfaced, the source said. The Hai Kun underwent tests in the port from