CPSC must answer questions about imported Chinese products

U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans Greg Walden (R-OR), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Buddy Carter (R-GA) recently questioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) about Chinese-made products entering the U.S. that may be the result of the human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims, particularly products made with Uighur women’s hair.

“The CPSC must act to assure the American people that it is taking appropriate steps to address it,” the members wrote in an Oct. 27 letter sent to CPSC Acting Chairman Robert Adler.

The Chinese government reportedly is shaving Uighur women to use their hair for products that are shipped to the U.S., according to the letter, which noted that in July, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized a 13-ton shipment of beauty products suspected to have been made out of the hair likely from the Uighur Muslims internment camps in Xinjiang, China.

More than one million Uighurs have been interned in more than 85 detention camps by the Chinese government, which continues to expand these camps, wrote the lawmakers. And while Chinese officials have long denied the existence of these camps, members of the Uighurs say they have been detained, interrogated and beaten at these camps, which the Chinese government now calls re-education camps.

“The Chinese government’s human rights abuses and inhumane practices against Uighur Muslims cannot be tolerated by the rest of the World,” the committee members wrote. “We all must speak out in defense of Uighur Muslims and denounce China’s vicious behavior.”

Reps. Walden, McMorris Rodgers, and Carter, along with House Energy and Commerce committee member U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), requested that Adler answer several questions, including if his office has known about the abuses at such camps, which products it is aware of that are being imported to the U.S. from these regions, and if the CPSC requires any additional steps or increased scrutiny for shipments coming from these specific regions of China, among others.