US blocks Xinjiang goods from Chinese companies, accusing them of slave labour

The Trump administration has issued new import restrictions against Chinese companies it accuses of using slave labour. These goods also includeproducts from suspected mass prison camps in China's western Xinjiang region.

The US trade action is the latest in a series of steps by the Trump administration targetting Chinese authorities and businesses over allegations of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.

Five companies in Xinjiang and one in eastern Anhui province, which make apparel, cotton, computer and hair products, have been named in the new order by United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP).

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One of Xinjiang's vocational skills education and training centres is also named in the order. This term -- vocational skills education and training centres -- is used by Beijing to refer to the largecamps where inmates from Muslim minorities are allegedly detained.

The agency issued "Withhold Release Orders" for all six Chinese entities, which are intended to prevent goods suspected to have been made with forced labour from entering the US.In these camps, these minorities are made to pledge loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, and work as free or low-cost forced labour in factories and nearby facilities.

The orders allow CBP to detain shipments at US ports and gives companies the opportunity to export their shipments or demonstrate that the merchandise was not produced with forced labour.

The new orders targetting forced labour in China followed two years of investigations by USCBP.A stronger action is, however, still under review by the US administration.

Meanwhile,a special report by CNN substantiates the claims. According to the report, the US accusations of forced labour in Xinjiang are part of a wider pattern of allegedhuman rights violationsby the Chinese government in the region.

CNN says it "has documentedmultiple testimonies of people who escaped from the camps, including women who say they were tortured, sexually assaulted, and forced to undergo sterilization procedures – all accusations which China has denied."

(with inputs)