Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.) will host basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom at the Republican Study Committee lunch this Wednesday, Politico Playbook reported on Monday.
Kanter Freedom will reportedly push for new legislation from Banks dealing with Uyghur labor in the Xinjiang region of China. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have labeled China’s treatment of Uyghur citizens a “genocide,” with reports of detention camps and potential forced labor emerging from the region.
Kanter Freedom has been an outspoken critic of China and its policies toward the Uyghurs and Tibet.
The news comes as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is set to take effect on June 21. That bill, signed by President Biden on December 23, 2021, dictates that goods imported from Xinjiang are presumed to have been made with forced labor unless proven otherwise, essentially banning imports from the region.
Banks in February backed a legislative amendment that would have required the Treasury Department to determine if certain Chinese companies should be sanctioned under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Various American companies, including Apple and Nike, had lobbied against the measure.
China has denied allegations that it uses forced labor, and last week the country warned implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would damage ties with the U.S.
“If the act is implemented, it will severely disrupt normal cooperation between China and the US, and global industrial and production chains,” China Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a press conference.