A craftsman offers wood handicrafts to train riders in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in April. The train connects northern and southern Xinjiang and is enjoyed by local residents. (Photo/Xinhua)
The United States government believed hyping up "forced labor, genocide and human rights abuses" in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region would help contain China.
That"s what Sheila Carey and Andrew Chira, two diplomatic officials at the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou then, told guests at a reception in 2021, says a social media post by Global Times.
That would mean that certain U.S. politicians knew they were lying about Xinjiang but still chose to do so. In fact, they fabricated those lies. That should come as no surprise though. For, wasn"t it former U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who headed the CIA from 2017 to 2018, who famously said: "We lied, we cheated, we stole"?
Pompeo is the only person in U.S. history to have been promoted from CIA chief to secretary of state. And it seems many U.S. officials follow in Pompeo"s steps and serve the CIA with their fabricated lies.
However, what they do not realize is that by doing the CIA"s bidding, they are actually hurting U.S. interests. It is because of lies peddled by certain U.S. politicians that the "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act" was passed by the U.S. Congress and Senate in 2021, before U.S. President Joe Biden signed it into law.
According to the act, all commodities from Xinjiang cannot clear U.S. customs unless the importers provide ample proof there was no "forced labor" in the whole supply chain.
Voice of America quoted Doug Barry, a vice-president with the U.S.-China Business Council, as saying that "the specifics of what must be proven and how have not been announced, leaving American companies to worry that cargo may be seized for unspecified reasons". The law is so broad that it can apply to many categories of goods regardless of proximity to Xinjiang. And that"s worrisome for thousands of U.S. companies, given that in the first quarter of 2021, Xinjiang exported goods worth $64.4 million to the U.S.
