US NSA: China 'shaving heads' of Uighur women and 'making hair products'

United States National Security Adviser said on October 16 that Chinese officials are shaving the heads of Uighur women in so-called vocational centres in Xinjiang to make hair products and send them to the US. While speaking at a webinar hosted by Aspen Insitute, Robert O’Brien highlighted crackdowns by China including the one in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and China’s far northwest area. O’Brien was one of the speakers at the online event on ‘President Trump’s National Security Agenda’ on Friday. He even accused China of carrying out “something close to” genocide in the remote region.

"The Chinese are literally shaving the heads of Uighur women and making hair products and sending them to the United States," he said while referring to the seizures made by the US customs of “massive numbers” of hair products made with human hair from Xinjiang. 

As per reports, earlier in June the US Customs and Border Protection said that it had detained a shipment originating in Xinjiang of hair products as well as accessories that are suspected of being forced-labour products made with human hair. At the time, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also labelled the reports of China using forced sterilization, abortion against the Muslim minority as “shocking” and “disturbing”.

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Recently, the US House of Representatives had even voted 406-3 to declare that any goods produced in Xinjiang are ‘presumptively’ made with the forced labour of the Uighur Muslims along with other ethnic minorities. Therefore, it banned such items from being imported to the United States. If this bill is enacted into law, it could force the firms to avoid a region that produces nearly 80 per cent of cotton in China along with one of the world’s top producers of the fibre, tomatoes and manufactured goods. 

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The US lawmakers had reportedly said that the measure was essential to press China to stop its campaign. The United Nations (UN) has estimated that there are nearly one million Muslims who have been detained in the Asian country’s remote region. Meanwhile, activists claim that several human rights violations are taking place in Xinjiang. But, China has categorically denied all allegations and claims that the camps in the area are set up to provide ‘vocational training’ to tackle extremism. 

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China blasts US on bill over forced labour

Last month, China lashed out at the passage of a bill by the US House of Representatives that threatens sanctions over the alleged use of forced labour. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin not only dismissed the accusations as “lie” but said that the US bill “maliciously slandered the human rights situation in Xinjiang” and curbed the development. 

“The so-called problem of forced labour is totally a lie fabricated by some organizations and personnel in the United States and the West,” Wang as quoted by AP. 

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(With Inputs/Image: AP)