An employee at work in a Xinjiang Jinliyuan Clothing Co factory in Aksu, Xinjiang. File Photo: Li Xuanmin/GT

Businesses in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region should learn to use legal means, in addition to countermeasures by the Chinese government, to defend their legitimate rights and interests against bullying by US authorities who recently again seized products based on unproven claims of forced labor, a Chinese experts said on Thursday.

The comments came after the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Wednesday issued an order to all US ports to seize imported products made wholly or in part with hair products produced by Lop County Meixin Hair Product in Xinjiang.

The CBP asserted that the order was "based on information that reasonably indicated the use of prison labor with additional situations of forced labor including, but not limited to, excessive overtime, withholding of wages and restriction of movement."

The CBP did not provide any evidence proving that Meixin had used forced labor or any of the accusations made by the US agency.

"This is very thuggish. Seize before investigation… based on procedure, it indeed needs evidence, not just suspicion," Zhu Ying, deputy director of the Human Rights Institute at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Thursday, noting that if they wrongfully seized the products, they need to compensate the company.

Zhu said US authorities know that very few Chinese companies will challenge these thuggish actions through legal means.  

Textile companies in Aksu in Xinjiang that also faced similar seizures by US authorities told the Global Times that they have no proper channels through which they can file complaints and can only quietly cope with the loss. Meixin is only the latest to face US' such seizures, and several Xinjiang firms have already faced a cracked down by US authorities.  

"Our private companies need to learn to use legal weapons to protect their rights and interests," Zhu said, adding that there could be additional crackdowns on businesses based in Xinjiang following the US' new so-called "Uygur bill."

Even as Chinese and US top diplomats met in Hawaii to exchange views on a wide range of disputes, including US' interference in China's internal affairs in Xinjiang, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law new legislation that paves the way for sanctions against China.

After the Uygur Human Rights Policy Act came into effect on Thursday, US politicians said they plan to pass another bill, which is based on accusations that falsely claim "forced labor" is used in Xinjiang.

Zhu said the law would make  crackdown on Xinjiang businesses by the US "more justifiable," and other Xinjiang companies might face a similar fate. As part of the response to the Uygur bill, Xinjiang companies are advised to keep all evidence proving they did not use forced labor in any of their supply chains.

China has repeatedly warned the US that if the US harms Chinese interests and continues to interfere with China's internal affairs, China will retaliate. "China will definitely take firm countermeasures and the US will have to bear all the consequences," Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday.