Republican calls Starbucks ‘morally bankrupt’ for doing business in China’s Xinjiang and demands store closures

Starbucks has opened its first two stores in Xinjiang, and the chairman of the House Select Committee on China, John Moolenaar, is demanding that it shut them. He called the move "morally bankrupt" and said an American company has no justifiable reason to operate in a region where Beijing, in his telling, has locked up over a million Uyghurs and is erasing their religion, language and culture. His statement came Thursday, and he urged the company to reverse course immediately, according to The Independent.

The cafes debuted this week in Urumqi, the regional capital, with one at the Grand Bazaar downtown and one at the international airport. Photos posted on WeChat showed the company's logo in English and Chinese but no clear Uyghur-language signage, even though that language is meant to hold official standing in the region. China Chief Executive Officer Liu Wenjuan wrote on the company's WeChat account that Starbucks would keep investing in Xinjiang.

China's Foreign Ministry dismissed the American accusations as "naked lies" and said it would offer foreign businesses more investment openings. China rejects claims of abuse against the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim minority, saying its policies target terrorism, separatism and extremism. Starbucks did not answer Reuters' requests for comment.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →