John Moolenaar, a Republican Congressman and chair of a counter-China select committee, has called Starbucks’s decision to open coffee shops in the Chinese region of Xinjiang “morally bankrupt”.

Starbucks opened its first two stores in the region’s capital, Urumqi earlier this week. One is in the city centre’s Grand Bazaar and the other in its international airport.

The plurality of citizens of the autonomous region of Xinjiang are Uyghurs, an ethic group that China has been widely accused of oppressing. The country disputes these claims, arguing that its policies in the region are aimed at combating terrorism, separatism and religious extremism.

In a statement released Thursday, Moolenaar called on the US-based coffee chain to “immediately reverse course and close its stores”, adding that it was “a shocking and morally bankrupt decision by a company that prides itself on social responsibility”.

He went on to claim that the Chinese Communist Party has detained more than one million Muslims Uyghurs in the region and is “stripping them of their faith, language and culture”.

Moolenaar chairs the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, which was established in 2022 in a bid to counter growing Chinese influence around the world.

In a statement to Reuters, China’s Foreign Ministry said that US claims of repression in the region were “naked lies” and that Xinjiang enjoyed “stable society, economic growth, racial unity and religious harmony”.

The ministry added that China would offer more investment opportunities for foreign enterprises.

Starbucks did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

Starbucks decision to open the stores follows the finalisation of its China joint venture in April 2026, when it sold 60 per cent of its business in the country to investor Boyu Capital. The deal impacted the firm’s short-term revenue in the region but is intended to help it scale from 8,000 to 20,000 stores in the long run.

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