A cotton farmer holds cotton to his face to check crop quality in Shawan city, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Oct 23, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]
 

The latest US bill on sanctions against China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, full of vicious lies, is nothing but another desperate attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs through "long-arm jurisdiction" and contain China's development out of its hegemonic self-interests.

 

In disregard of repeated stern representations from the Chinese government, the US administration has signed the so-called "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act" into law, which falsely claim all products in the northwestern Chinese territory are produced by "forced labor" and bans imports of them.

 

This US accusation is pure fabrication and groundless slandering.

 

The truth is that people in Xinjiang, like other parts of China, work voluntarily and enjoy the same treatment and conditions in accordance with law. Xinjiang's labor and employment policies and practices comply with China's laws and international labor and human rights standards.

 

Facts speak for themselves. From 1978 to 2020, the per capita disposable income of both urban and rural residents in Xinjiang saw an over 100-fold increase.

 

The coercive US sanctions against Xinjiang through its domestic legislation is an act of unilateralism, intervention and hegemony under the cloak of human rights.

 

The US "long-arm jurisdiction" has not only seriously harmed the legitimate interests of Chinese enterprises in Xinjiang as well as the basic human rights of Xinjiang people, including their right to development and work, but also gravely violated the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the fundamental principle of sovereign equality in international law and the basic principle of non-interference in international relations.

 

Examples abound in recent years in terms of US abuse of "long-arm jurisdiction" as a hegemonic tool to suppress foreign entities, interfere in other countries' internal affairs or even subvert other countries' legitimate governments. Among the victims are such foreign companies as Germany's Deutsche Bank and French railway manufacturer Alstom.

 

The US bullying move has been widely rejected by the international community. French daily Les Echos said that long-arm jurisdiction has been used as a weapon by the United States to weaken foreign competitors.

 

The US hype about Xinjiang-related issues, together with its crafting conspiracies and plots with issues concerning China's Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet among other issues, are aimed at smearing China, interfering in China's internal affairs and containing China's development.

 

Lawrence Wilkerson, the chief of staff to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, had once publicly confessed that the best way for the US Central Intelligence Agency to destabilize China would be "to form unrest" in Xinjiang.

 

As a famous saying goes, "your freedom ends where my nose begins." The United States should never underestimate the strong resolution, determination and capability of the Chinese people to safeguard their national sovereignty and its morbid obsession with hegemonism and power politics will only make itself a discredited laughingstock of countries upholding international equity and justice.