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Airbnb has a dozen listings in Xinjiang on land owned by a U.S.-listed company since 2020.
Two members of the US Congress express concern over the business activities of the rental company Airbnb Inc China’s Xinjiang region, where Washington says Beijing is committing genocide against Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic groups.
Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative James McGovern, chairman of the Chinese Executive Committee of the Chinese Congress and two Democrats, respectively, have sent a letter to Airbnb (PDF) Asking about some of his listings in Xinjiang and other topics.
Lawmakers said “Airbnb is raising questions about China’s commitment to human rights and non-discrimination” because it sponsors the Beijing Winter Olympics, which begin next month.
“As long as Airbnb continues to maintain its XUAR list, it has not publicly condemned the ongoing genocide, nor the heinous and systematic human rights violations against ethnic minorities in China,” the letter said, referring to Xinjiang’s Uyghur. Autonomous Community.
China denies the abuses in Xinjiang.
Lawmakers cited a report on the Axios website that a dozen Airbnb listings in Xinjiang are on land owned by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Group (XPCC), which was fined by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2020.
The action freezes the U.S. assets of the company and its officials, and generally prohibits Americans from dealing with them.
The letter referred to the US State Department as saying that the XPCC is a quasi-military organization directly involved in “forced labor and possibly other human rights violations” in Xinjiang.
Both lawmakers said Airbnb “continues to operate in a country where its laws require it to discriminate against hosts on the basis of ethnicity, place of origin or lack of passports, when the ability to obtain a passport for people of certain ethnic groups may be impossible.”
Airbnb did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2019, the online home rental company was also severely criticized by pro-Palestinian rights groups continue to list rental homes In illegal Israeli locations in the occupied West Bank.
The conflict between Western Xinjiang governments and China has become a significant turning point in recent years, with United Nations experts and rights groups estimating that more than a million people, mostly Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, have been arrested in camps there.
The Chinese embassy in Washington on Friday denied allegations of abuses in Xinjiang, and said some members of Congress “repeatedly praised the issues and put pressure on companies.”
@CECCgov Chairs @SenJeffMerkley and @RepMcGovern send the letter @Airbnb looking for answers about his business activities #Xinjiang. https://t.co/XdlUBbM5JP pic.twitter.com/TsCFGzT9uL
– Chinese Commission (@CECCgov) January 7, 2022
Some lawmakers affirmed that they had “malicious intent to hijack businesses with political schemes and keep China with Xinjiang-related problems.”
On tuesday Tesla was also criticized After announcing the opening of a showcase in Xinjiang.
As a result of strong pressure from the U.S. Congress, President Joseph Biden signed a new law in December on human rights violations banning products made in Xinjiang.
The law imposes an almost complete ban on the importation of goods from Xinjiang into the United States, requiring suppliers to first prove that their products were not made with forced labor. Xinjiang is a major supplier of cotton and solar panels.
China has said the US action is “economic persecution.”. Beijing has also imposed sanctions on four members of the U.S. government’s International Committee on Religious Freedom in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Chinese officials in connection with the Xinjiang case.
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