The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has added 43 more companies to the “entity list” under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), directing customs agents to presume that all goods from the listed companies are tainted by slave labor from Uyghurs and other oppressed minorities in China.
The announcement marked the largest expansion of the UFLPA in the four years since it went into effect.
The new companies included China-linked firms in the apparel trade and cotton harvesting — which were prominent early targets of UFLPA, since China is the top worldwide supplier of cotton, and much of China’s cotton is harvested with forced labor from the Uyghurs.
Other industries affected by the new listings included aluminum production and agriculture, particularly tomatoes and downstream products.
One of the listed companies, Chalkis Health Industry Co. Ltd., was described by DHS as a “state-owned holding listed company” headquartered in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), China’s name for the Uyghur homeland. DHS said it has “reasonable cause to believe” that Chalkis “sources tomatoes from the XUAR,” which means they are presumptively tainted by slavery.
“Today we are adding 43 Chinese companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, and DHS will ensure their products do not enter our country,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said when announcing the new listed entities on Friday.
“The American worker must not be undercut and cheated by foreign companies that use slave labor. Our job is to defend the Homeland, and that includes protecting our citizens from unfair competition that not only disadvantages Americans, but harms human dignity,” Mullin declared.
“The Trump Administration remains steadfast in its commitment to remove forced labor from U.S. supply chains and to holding foreign companies accountable for their exploitation,” said DHS Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans Rob Law.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it has denied entry to over 24,300 shipments worth almost a billion dollars since the UFLPA took effect in 2022.
China’s state-run Global Times on Monday sneered at the updated list, and the “so-called Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” dismissing them as a political stunt based on “absurd logic.”
“The listing reflects the lack of factual basis, reliance on speculation and political bias, and the labeling of normal trade with political tags have gradually become the norm in U.S. policy toward China,” the Chinese Communist paper hissed.
The Global Times denounced the DHS action as “baffling” and portrayed “Chinese netizens” as confused and contemptuous, without engaging with any of the evidence or particulars from the U.S. announcement.
The Global Times considered it patently absurd to put food companies on the list, for example, mocking American officials as killjoys who just hate “sweet stuff” or harbor an irrational fear of “choking on sunflower seeds.” In truth, agriculture has for centuries been a magnet for the use of slave labor.
“The inclusion of food and snack companies on the list shows that the scope of U.S. measures is expanding to ordinary consumer sectors, raising concerns about market uncertainty and bilateral economic and trade ties,” the report said, painting the expanded UFLPA list as a betrayal of the “candid, in-depth, and constructive” talks between U.S. and Chinese trade officials that were held the day before the UFLPA announcement was made.