Xinjiang tomato exports resilient to US ban on products from region
Tomatoes were one of the “high-risk” products under the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Act. However, the tomato industry in Xinjiang was not affected by the ban for two reasons. First, the U.S. doesn’t import tomatoes from the region since it relies mostly on domestic production and imports from neighboring countries. And second, Xinjiang exported tomato products to more than 80 countries in the first seven months of 2022.
Foundation named after Elie Wiesel plans to fund Uyghur activists
Named after Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, the foundation he started with his wife in 1986 plans to be a grant maker of Uyghur advocacy.
News in brief
Erbakit Otarbay, a 49-year-old Kazakh survivor of an internment camp and forced labor in Xinjiang, who now lives in the U.K., plans to sue the British government for not adequately responding to imports of cotton products made by forced labor from Xinjiang. Otarbay sent a letter to the U.K. Department of International trade last week, asking U.K. trade secretary Kemi Badenoch to address her government’s “ongoing failure” to ban the import of cotton products from Xinjiang into the U.K. A U.K. government representative told VOA that evidence of the scale and severity of human rights violations being perpetrated in Xinjiang against Uyghur Muslims paints a harrowing picture which the government condemns. “Businesses should not be profiting from forced labor,” the representative told VOA. “The U.K. is absolutely committed to tackling the issue of Uyghur forced labor in supply chains and we have taken decisive action.”
Quote of note
“My father firmly believed that his faith required him to fight hatred and oppression everywhere. Are we brave enough to follow? China … inflicts mass internment, forced labor and forced sterilization on the Uyghur people.”
— Elisha Wiesel, son of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel
