Lawmakers Ask Airbnb to Delist Xinjiang Rentals, Question Human Rights Commitment
Two additional U.S. lawmakers said they are concerned Airbnb lists more than a dozen homes for rent on land owned by a sanctioned paramilitary Chinese entity and asked the company to remove the listings (see 2112070062). Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and James McGovern, D-Mass., the two leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, asked Arbnb to ensure none of its rental homes is located on property owned by U.S.-sanctioned entities and to “remove such listings if they are discovered.”
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“While Airbnb continues to maintain listings in [China’s Xinjiang province], it has not publicly condemned the continuing genocide taking place there, or other egregious, systematic human rights abuses being carried out against ethnic minorities in China,” the lawmakers said in a Jan. 7 letter to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Airbnb lists homes for rent on land owned by Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which the Treasury Department sanctioned in 2020 for helping to create a surveillance and detention program for Muslim minority groups (see 2111300031 and 2007310028).
Merkley and McGovern asked Airbnb to explain the “actions” it’s taking to help “remedy human rights violations” in China and whether it has reached out to experts, human rights governments or members of the Uyghur community on “how best to remedy the human rights impacts of their continued business in China.” The company should also commit to monitoring its listings to avoid renting property on land owned by the XPCC, the lawmakers said, and asked whether the company will commit to “using its platforms to speak out actively on behalf of the human rights of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China.” An Airbnb spokesperson didn’t comment.