US House passes bill banning imports from China over Uyghur slave labor

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would ban the importation of products made in the Xinjiang region of China due to concerns about communist country's treatment of religious and ethnic minorities.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act was passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 428-1.

The bill aims to impose economic sanctions on the northwest region of China due to the use of slave labor and subjugation of the Uyghur Muslims to make goods.

The legislation has received overwhelming support from both parties and is viewed as a stand against China's genocide of the country's religious and ethnic minorities. In fact, in a rare turn of events, the bill has united Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.).

The bill got attention after Rubio stalled action on the annual defense bill in an effort to get the same language into the defense legislation as an amendment, NPR said. The Florida senator's efforts failed, so when the House passed the Chinese labor bill, he offered his support.

"This is a bill that says if products are made in that part of China they are presumed to have been made by slave labor unless the manufacturer can prove it wasn't," Rubio said.

There is some concern among Republicans about whether or not the Biden administration will support the bill. Sen. Rubio said in a statement Wednesday that the Biden administration and corporate interests are "already working to complicate things here in the Senate."

However, State Department spokesperson Ned Prince said on Wednesday that the administration did not oppose the bill and would not lobby against it. Prince claimed that the administration "has perhaps done more than any administration and really galvanized the international community to put a spotlight on what has taken place in Xinjiang."

Democrats appear hopeful that the Biden administration will support the legislation since the bill's details align with the administration's diplomatic stand not to attend the Winter Olympics, made earlier this week due to China's human rights violations.

The bill now heads to the Senate and, if signed into law, will take effect no later than June 8.

President Biden has yet to issue a statement about whether he supports the bill but has expressed a shared concern about the forced labor in China's Xinjiang region.

When asked whether the president will support the legislation if it passes the Senate, Speaker Pelosi's spokesman Drew Hammill indicated that the speaker believes the president will support the bill.