Hi, I'm Dan Pramak and welcome to Axios Recap. Today's Thursday, July 23rd. Weekly jobless

claims are up for the first time since March, stocks are down, and we're focused on the next

front in America's economic Cold War with China. Earlier this week, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced legislation aimed at

stemming the use of forced and slave labor by American corporations, particularly those that run

much of their supply chains through China. Here are the details. Holly's bill would require

any U.S. company with global revenue of at least $500 million

to implement an annual, independent audit of its supply chain to uncover the use of child labor,

slave labor, or forced labor, as defined by U.S. law. This would include both direct and indirect

suppliers, and the audit would then be sent

to the U.S. Labor Department.

It also would be posted on the company's website and certified by the company's CEO.

Violations could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

Why it matters is that slave labor is, well, slave labor.

It's people being forced to work against their will, in this case

for the bottom line of for-profit corporations. It's the sort of thing that companies like

Nike and Apple, which regularly profess their progressive bona fides, don't like to talk too much

about. It also matters because Holly's bill feels like a broader effort to economically decoupled the U.S. from China, which may well continue no matter who's in the Oval Office next January.

Let's now go deeper with Josh Hawley, Republican Senator from Missouri.

Senator, with this bill, this forced labor bill you introduced last week, it's international in scope,

but is it fair to say that this is, from your perspective, really aimed at companies doing business

or having supply chains in China? Well, certainly China is one of the biggest defenders in the world,

probably the biggest defender when it comes to forced slave labor.

...