Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labor and abusive DNA collection WASHINGTON: The US Commerce Department said on Monday it is adding 11 Chinese companies implicated in what it said were human rights violations in connection with China’s treatment of its Uighurs in Xinjiang in western China to the US economic blacklist. The department said the companies are involved in using forced labor by Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups. They include numerous textile companies and two firms the government said were conducting genetic analyses used to further the repression. It was the third group of companies and others in China added to the US entity list after two prior announcements added 37 companies and others that the Trump administration said were involved in China’s repression in Xinjiang. “Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labor and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement. “This action will ensure that our goods and technologies are not used in the Chinese Communist Party’s despicable offensive against defenseless Muslim minority populations.” Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that China is considering retaliating against telecom gear makers Nokia and Ericsson if the European Union follows the US and Britain in banning Huawei Technologies from 5G networks.