U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act on Dec. 23. The bill, which had been previously approved by both Houses of the U.S. Congress, in spite of reported offstage objections by multinationals such as Apple, Coca-Cola and Nike, bans imports of cotton and other products originating in the Xinjiang region, unless the importers can prove that they were not produced with forced labor. The Chinese Embassy in Washington criticized the move as “gross interference in China’s internal affairs.” However, a couple of days later, the Chinese government announced the resignation of Chen Quanguo as the head of the Chinese Communist Party for the province of Xinjiang. Sanctioned by the U.S. government since July 2020 because of his role in the crackdown on ethnic minorities in the region, the 66-year-old former military officer had been in charge of the province since 2016, after serving for five years as secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet. Ma Xingui, who has been in charge of the province of Guandong, is taking over his place in Xinjiang.

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