By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday it is adding 11 Chinese companies implicated in what it said were human rights violations in connection with China’s treatment of its Uighurs in Xinjiang in western China to the U.S. economic blacklist.
The department said the companies are involved in using forced labor by Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups. They include numerous textile companies and two firms the government said were conducting genetic analyses used to further the repression of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.
It was the third group of companies and others in China added to the U.S. entity list after two prior announcements added 37 companies and others that the Trump administration said were involved in China’s repression in Xinjiang.
“Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labor and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement. “This action will ensure that our goods and technologies are not used in the Chinese Communist Party’s despicable offensive against defenseless Muslim minority populations.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Dan Grebler)
