China condemns US move to add Chinese medical equipment firms to Uyghur forced labour list

BEIJING, Oct 29 (Reuters) - China's commerce ministry on Thursday condemned the United States for placing several Chinese companies on a list of businesses Washington alleges use Uyghur forced labour or source material from Xinjiang, and said Beijing would take steps to safeguard its interests.

The US added three Chinese medical equipment makers to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, which includes entities that the US says use or facilitate the use of forced labour of Uyghurs and other minorities, or source material from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

US Customs and Border Protection is instructed to stop goods from the listed companies from entering the United States unless exporters can ​rebut the presumption they were made with forced labour.

The list is contrary to the consensus reached by the two heads of state, and the US should immediately cease "political manipulation, smear campaigns, and unreasonable suppression of Chinese enterprises," the commerce ministry said.

The US added MGI Tech ‌Co Ltd 688114.SS, BGI Genomics Co Ltd 300676.SZ and Shenzhen BGI Technology Co Ltd, which the US says is also known as the BGI Group, to the list on Wednesday.

MGI Tech has rejected US allegations and said it had "zero tolerance" for forced labour. BGI Genomics and BGI Group, its parent, have also said they are not engaged in any form of forced labour.

A group of UN experts said in January there was "a persistent pattern" of alleged forced labour affecting Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz minority groups as well as Tibetans in Xinjiang and across multiple provinces of China. Beijing rejected the allegations as groundless.

In early 2025, China placed rival US medical equipment maker Illumina ILMN.O on its "unreliable entity" list.