U.S. lawmaker asks Starbucks to close its first stores in China’s Xinjiang

The chairman of the House Select Committee on China, John Moolenaar, has asked the American coffee giant Starbucks to close the first two stores it opened this week in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region — calling the decision “shocking and morally bankrupt”.

Starbucks opened its first two stores in Urumqi this week — one in the city’s central grand bazaar and another at the international airport, as Reuters reports. The company said on the Chinese platform WeChat that the stores are not simply new coffee shops, but an experience that blends local culture with customers’ needs, and its China chief executive, Liu Wenjuan, added that the company will continue to invest in Xinjiang.

“This is a shocking and morally bankrupt decision by a company that prides itself on social responsibility”, Moolenaar said in a statement released on Thursday, asking Starbucks “to immediately reverse course and close the stores”, according to Reuters. According to him, there is no justifiable reason for an American company to do business in a region where the Chinese Communist Party has detained more than a million Uyghurs and is stripping them of their faith, language and culture.

China denies the widespread allegations of abuses against the Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim people, saying its policies were aimed at fighting terrorism, separatism and religious extremism, Reuters reports. Neither Starbucks nor China’s Foreign Ministry immediately responded to a request for comment; China is in the middle of a week-long national holiday.

The statement comes at a time when U.S.–China relations are strained: in April 2026 Starbucks finalised its joint venture in China with strategic investor Boyu Capital as a 60 percent shareholder, and that venture operates around 8,000 stores in China, Reuters adds.