Rep. Moran proposes bill to ban U.S. business dealings with companies tied to China’s Xinjiang region
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - According to KLTV’s Michael Richardson, U.S. Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Tyler) has reintroduced a bill that would prohibit the U.S. government from doing business with companies tied to East Turkistan.
The Chinese government has been accused of committing genocide against the Uyghurs in East Turkistan. Forced labor camps, detention centers, and severe human rights violations in the region have drawn international condemnation.
This bill previously passed the House of Representatives but failed to make it through the Senate.
“This is not only an economic pushback but, frankly, a global moral issue,” said Moran. “China is acting in a highly immoral way. We do not want to be a co-conspirator to slave labor anywhere in the world.”
“The Chinese government, they want to integrate [Xinjiang] province into China itself,” said Associate Professor of Political Science at LeTourneau University Dr. John Barrett. “They have a policy of trying to get, they call Han Chinese - the dominant ethnic group - to migrate to there, but there’s also been a lot of effort to try to undermine the Uyghurs and their kind of cultural identity, and that has kind of tragically turned into these large concentration camps, where they will have the Uyghurs kind of housed to do various kind of programs to try to discourage them from participating in their culture.”
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, China grows a majority of its cotton in East Turkistan.
“I don’t think the bill itself is going to have a big economic impact,” added Barrett. “The larger concern for China is that you get a broader boycott against Chinese goods that can’t be certified that they’re not coming from Xinjiang.”
“One of the things that there’s a bipartisan consensus on these days is that we need to have a tougher stance vis-à-vis China, and so I think this is just kind of part of that,” Barrett added.
Moran sees the bill as a step in holding China accountable.
“This is not the end of the activity that needs to happen legislatively to stop this atrocious behavior and activity in China, but certainly is a good step forward,” Moran said.
The proposed law has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
1 April 2025
