China’s Crackdown on Xinjiang: US blocks imports of ‘slave labor’ cotton

The United States will block imports of cotton it says are harvested with "slave labor" in China's Xinjiang region, authorities have announced. 

Beijing has come under intense international criticism over its policies in the resource-rich territory, where rights groups say as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in internment camps.

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The new rule allows Customs and Border Protection officials to detain shipments containing cotton originating from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Xinjiang is a global hub for cotton, with one study by a labor group estimating that 20 percent of the garments imported into the United States contain at least some yarn from the region.

Meanwhile, Washington issued new entry rules for Chinese Communist Party members traveling to the United States, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing the State Department. The new policy -- which took immediate effect on Wednesday -- caps visas of Communist Party members and their immediate families to one month and a single entry into the country, the report said.