Several Republican lawmakers urged the Biden administration to crack down on imports from the company.
House Republicans are urging a crackdown on goods imported into the U.S. by a Chinese company that they allege is linked to Beijing’s Uyghur forced-labor programs, National Review has exclusively learned. In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas today, several lawmakers urged the Biden administration to crack down on imports from the company.
The company in question is the Fufeng Group, which is one of China’s largest producers of food additives and has over 1,800 employees in Xinjiang involved in production of amino acids and xanthan gum. It gained notoriety in the U.S. after one of its subsidiaries attempted to purchase farmland in the vicinity of Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, a deal that was terminated this year amid concerns that the purchase would compromise U.S. national security.
Representative Jim Banks (Ind.), who is leading the effort, told NR that he’s calling on President Biden to block all Fufeng imports and to investigate its possible use of forced labor. He said: “Chinese Communist Party–controlled conglomerate Fufeng Group already tried to set up shop right next to a U.S. Air Force Base, creating a serious risk to our national security. Now, Fufeng has exploited the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce the law and hold Chinese companies accountable to continue selling products possibly made with Uyghur forced labor on the U.S. market.” Fufeng and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Banks and Representatives John Moolenaar (Mich.), Brad Finstad (Minn.), and Dusty Johnson (S.D.), the other letter signatories, outlined their concerns about Fufeng’s potential involvement in China’s Uyghur forced-labor programs.
“Its biotechnologies subsidiary is located in Ganquanbao Industrial Park, in close proximity to three Uyghur ‘re-education’ camps,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, which was obtained by NR. They also alleged that Fufeng “has a formal partnership” with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a Chinese Communist Party paramilitary group that wields significant power in the region. The U.S. applied human-rights sanctions to the XPCC in 2020 for its central role in implementing the party’s policies in Xinjiang, which the State Department later characterized as crimes against humanity and genocide.
They asked the Biden cabinet officials to immediately launch an investigation into whether Fufeng Group should be sanctioned under the 2020 Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.
The lawmakers further argued that Fufeng “more than qualifies” for Customs and Border Protection to block its products. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, passed in 2021, put the onus on importers to prove that Xinjiang-produced goods were not made using forced labor. And they criticized the Biden administration for lifting a temporary prohibition on Fufeng imports “for unknown reasons.” It’s “deeply disturbing,” they wrote, that the administration is continuing to allow Fufeng imports despite an anti-dumping order pertaining to xanthan gums, the Uyghur forced-labor law, and another legal provision that explicitly prohibits the import of forced-labor produced goods.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act went into effect in June 2022, but some of its proponents are worried that its implementation has been flawed. In April the four co-chairmen of the Congressional Executive Commission on China wrote to CBP requesting more information about why goods initially stopped at customs on account of links to Xinjiang have ultimately been let through.
The process to strengthen enforcement of the law is ongoing. Last year, Banks called attention to reports indicating that goods linked to Uyghur forced labor — red jujube dates grown in Xinjiang — were imported into the U.S. CBP subsequently cracked down on the shipments.
“DHS responds to congressional correspondence directly via official channels, and the department will continue to respond appropriately to Congressional oversight,” a spokeswoman for the department told NR after publication. DHS also said that it’s actively working to add to its list of entities subject to import bans under the Uyghur forced-labor law.