China on Friday expressed its strong indignation and firm opposition to the so-called Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act signed by U.S. President Joe Biden.

"This Act maliciously denigrates the human rights situation in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in disregard of facts and truth. It seriously violates international law and basic norms governing international relations and grossly interferes in China's internal affairs," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement. 

The spokesperson urged the U.S. to immediately correct its mistakes and stop using Xinjiang-related issues to spread lies, interfere in China's internal affairs and contain the country's development.

"China will make further response depending on the development of the situation," the spokesperson said.

Noting that Xinjiang-related issues are not about human rights at all, but about fighting violence, terrorism and separatism, the spokesperson said that conspiring and scheming on Xinjiang-related issues cannot stop China's development.

"What the U.S. has done runs counter to market rules and business ethics. It will only destabilize the global industrial and supply chains and disrupt the international trade order," said the spokesperson.

The United States is the epicenter of human trafficking and forced labor, with as many as 100,000 people trafficked to the United States annually for forced labor in the past five years, the spokesperson added.

At Friday's regular briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian reiterated China's opposition to the U.S. ban on importing from Xinjiang. China will take necessary countermeasures depending on the situation, the spokesperson stressed.

China's top legislature also expressed its resolute opposition to the U.S. Act in a statement published later on Friday.

The U.S. Act fabricates the so-called "forced labor" issue in China's Xinjiang and grossly interferes in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights, said a statement issued by the Foreign Affairs Committee of China's National People's Congress.