US: Chinese centers for Uyghurs represent 'slavery of the modern age'

(Patria) – The US will block all Chinese products suspected of being the result of forced labor in the Xinjiang region, including those produced in concentration camps where members of the Uyghur minority are forcibly held.

This move by official Washington followed a request by the EU for Beijing to allow independent observers into Xinjiang, as well as other concessions as a condition for a major investment by the EU.

The representative of the US Customs and Border Protection agency, Mark Morgan, accused the Chinese government of 'systematic abuse of the Uyghur people' as well as other minorities.

- Forced labor is a cruel abuse of human rights, Morgan stated.

Blocked products include cotton, clothing items, hair products, and electronic devices from certain manufacturers in Xinjiang, as well as those produced in 'education and training centers' which Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli claims are centers for forced labor.

- This is not an educational center, it is a concentration camp, a place where religious and ethnic minorities are subjected to abuse, and where they are forced to work in terrible conditions without resources and without freedom, Cuccinelli told reporters, adding that it is 'slavery of the modern age' and that the Chinese government 'must close the concentration camps'.

At the same time, President of the EU Council Charles Michel, in a conversation with the Chinese President, reiterated concerns about how China treats 'minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as human rights activists and journalists'.

- We demand access to Xinjiang for independent observers, as well as the release of Swedish citizen Gui Minhai and two Canadian citizens who are arbitrarily detained, Michel insisted.  

Human rights groups, academics, and journalists have documented the brutal crackdown on Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, with some methods including forced sterilization, forced labor, mass detentions, as well as the strictest restrictions on movement and religious practices.  

These reports state that about a million Uyghurs are detained in camps where their 'brains are washed' through various methods, although Beijing presents them as vocational training centers aimed at preventing Islamic radicalism.