The Tory MP for Tonbridge and Malling, who has been put forward for a Foreign Office job if Liz Truss wins the Tory leadership contest on Monday, said Britain had “banned slavery a long time ago and should not to buy goods manufactured in such a way”. A UN report on alleged human rights abuses in northwest China’s Xinjiang region said last week that the regime may have been guilty of crimes against humanity there.
He was forced to pick cotton
The report said “labor and employment programs” in the region “may include elements of coercion and discrimination on religious and ethnic grounds,” following reports that Uyghurs were forced to pick cotton for little or no pay. Mr Tugendhat, chairman of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, writes in Monday’s Daily Telegraph that the next prime minister should “investigate the possibility of banning the import of all cotton products known to be produced in whole or in part in the Xinjiang region , in accordance with the rules of the WTO”. He writes: “We now know the high risk of coercion in Xinjiang. Your cotton t-shirt might as well have been made from materials handpicked by a Uighur in slave conditions.” It also called on the UK to stop buying “any technology that facilitates repression in Xinjiang”, including surveillance cameras that have been used in British schools, hospitals and government buildings. The United States has already banned imports from the region unless it can be proven not to have been produced with forced labor.
Criminal investigation
The UK has fined large companies operating in China that fail to prove their products are not linked to slavery, but Mr Turgendhat said the government needed to go further. He also said the next Tory leader should “engage in a dialogue with the International Criminal Court” about the possibility of a criminal investigation into human rights abuses. Ms Truss has already signaled she would take a tougher stance on China if she replaces Boris Johnson, declaring the country an official national security “threat” for the first time. The UN report was released by Michelle Bachelet, its human rights chief, in the final hours of her term last week, after pressure from Chinese diplomats to prevent its publication. Xinjiang produces about 20 percent of the world’s cotton and 80 percent of all cotton exported by China.
