China Urges US to Reverse Uyghur Act Entity List Expansion

China’s Ministry of Commerce has condemned Washington’s decision to add 43 Chinese companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) entity list, calling the move “typical economic coercion” with “no factual basis whatsoever” and urging the United States to correct it immediately. The US Department of Homeland Security announced the expansion on July 31, describing it as the largest single addition to the list since the law took effect.

Background: A steadily expanding list

The UFLPA, signed into US law in December 2021, creates a rebuttable presumption that goods produced wholly or partly in China’s Xinjiang region — or by entities on the UFLPA entity list — are prohibited from entering the United States unless importers can prove otherwise. The list is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, which have expanded it repeatedly since enforcement began in 2022. Before this week’s action, the list contained 144 entities.

What Washington announced

DHS said the 43 newly added companies operate in high-priority enforcement sectors including aluminum, apparel, copper, cotton, tomatoes and downstream products. It said the firms were added for sourcing materials from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region or working with the Xinjiang government to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor or receive Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz or members of other persecuted groups out of the region.

When the revised list is published, 187 entities will be listed — a 30% increase in the list’s size. Effective August 3, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply a rebuttable presumption that goods produced by the 43 newly listed entities are prohibited from entering the United States. DHS also announced technical updates to the official names of two entities already on the list. The department said CBP has denied entry to more than 24,300 shipments valued at nearly $1 billion since the UFLPA’s enactment.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the action would help ensure that products made by the listed companies do not enter the United States. “The American worker must not be undercut and cheated by foreign companies that use slave labor,” he said in the DHS announcement.

Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao reported that capacitor maker Aihua Group was among the listed firms. The full list of all 43 companies was not published in DHS’s press release; the department pointed to entity-specific information on its website, with the revised list due in a Federal Register notice on August 3.

Beijing’s response

In a spokesperson Q&A carried by Xinhua News, China’s Ministry of Commerce strongly condemned the move. The ministry said Washington’s actions had “no factual basis whatsoever” and had used the so-called “human rights” and “forced labor” as a pretext to impose unilateral sanctions on Chinese entities under its domestic law — “typical economic coercion.” It said the measures had seriously harmed the legitimate rights and interests of the affected companies and severely disrupted the stability of global industrial and supply chains.

MOFCOM also highlighted the timing: the US action came just one day after a July 30 video call between Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. During that call, the two sides discussed keeping economic and trade ties stable and addressing each other’s concerns. The ministry said that merely one day later Washington introduced harmful measures against China’s interests, “seriously deviating from the consensus of the two heads of state.” It said China strongly condemns and firmly opposes the action.

The statement repeated Beijing’s long-standing denial of forced labor in Xinjiang. “Xinjiang is currently socially harmonious and stable, its economy is prospering, and its people are living and working in peace — there is no so-called ‘forced labor’ in any form whatsoever,” MOFCOM said. The ministry urged the United States to stop attacking and smearing Xinjiang, stop manipulating the forced labor issue, and stop unreasonably suppressing Chinese companies. It added that China would take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.

What makes this different

The August 1 statement closely tracks MOFCOM’s responses to previous UFLPA expansions, which Beijing has also dismissed as economic coercion. The new element is the emphasis on sequence: a high-level call on July 30, followed by punitive action on July 31. By framing the move as a breach of the consensus between the two heads of state, Beijing appears to be raising the political cost of further US enforcement.

The expansion also adds another layer of friction to an already strained bilateral economic relationship. Washington has pursued tariffs, import controls and other trade measures in recent weeks, while Beijing has repeatedly warned that it will defend Chinese companies. The UFLPA has become one of the most forceful tools in that contest, allowing US authorities to block goods from entering the country without waiting for a court ruling.

What to watch next

The practical consequences for the newly listed companies begin on August 3, when the presumption of prohibition takes effect and importers must prove that goods were not produced with forced labor to secure entry to the US market. DHS has said it will publish the revised list in a Federal Register notice that day.

The key questions in the coming weeks are whether Beijing announces specific countermeasures, and whether the July 30 dialogue channel can survive this setback. The timing of Washington’s announcement — one day after a session that both sides described as candid and constructive — makes the next round of talks harder, not easier. For global supply chains, the message is clear: the US campaign to remove forced labor from import flows is expanding, and Chinese companies in high-priority sectors remain squarely in its sights.