“Never again.”

It’s a slogan that’s meant to remind humanity about what happened during WWII, and it’s supposed to be a promise that it will never happen again.

And yet, there are concentration camps in China today, in 2025. More than a million Uyghurs (a mostly Muslim minority) are estimated to be imprisoned in the Xinjiang region of China, where, according to the United States federal government, they are being used for slave labor and subjected to other human rights abuses.

It’s a problem that the U.S. does not have much leverage to solve, but state Rep. Bryan Posthumus is working to make sure that Michigan taxpayers are not giving money to companies that benefit from forced labor in their supply chain.

On Nov. 13, Posthumus, R-Rockford, introduced legislation to prevent the state from giving tax incentives to companies with demonstrated ties to forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China. It also requires the state to claw back payments to companies that receive funds should slave labor be found in their supply chain in the future.

The federal government maintains a list of entities that are known to use forced labor from China in their company supply chain.

“We don’t have to the power to fix everything wrong in the world, but we do have the power to make sure that we aren’t turning a blind eye to human rights abuses by the Chinese Community Party,” Posthumus said. “We have to power to make sure that Michigan taxpayers aren’t giving money to companies that use forced labor.”

House Bill 5288 was introduced on Nov. 13 and referred to the House Committee on Economic Competitiveness.