A new report had warned against the use of Uyghur forced labour by China in the global supply chain of solar panel manufacturing which is also central to US President Joe Biden’s plans to transition the US to a more environment-friendly energy grid. The report published on May 14 titled “In Broad Daylight: Uyghur Forced Labor and Global Solar Supply Chains” by UK’s Sheffield Hallam University said that Chinese “labour transfers” in the northwest Xinjiang region, where hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have been subjected to persecution and internment, is deployed in “an environment of unprecedented coercion, undergirded by the constant threat of re-education and internment.”
While China has repeatedly denied all allegation surrounding ‘forced labour’ of Uyghurs or any human rights violations in Xinjiang, many countries are betting on solar as a critical form of renewable energy as they work to transition away from more polluting power sources. The report stated 45% of the world’s polysilicon manufacturers which is a primary material used in 95% of solar modules, are based in Xinjiang where most members of the Uyghur community live.
The investigation “determined that many of the major Chinese producers of raw materials, solar-grade polysilicon, ingots and wafers integral to solar module manufacturing are operating facilities in the region that have employed forced labour transfers of the indigenous people of the region and that many of these manufacturers have beneficial relationships with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps”.
“These manufacturers’ adoption of compulsory labour has a significant impact on downstream producers of solar modules and for the governments, developers, and consumers who buy them,” the report added.
Religious freedom in China ‘deteriorating’
Meanwhile, United States has lambasted Xi Jinping-led government in China and Imran Khan-led government in Pakistan over the appalling condition of religious freedom among ethnic minorities. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in its report, “In 2019, religious freedom conditions in China continued to deteriorate. The Chinese government has created a high-tech surveillance state, utilizing facial recognition and artificial intelligence to monitor religious minorities.”
The commission also cited independent expert findings to state that up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minority community members are detained in over 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang. The camps increasingly converted from reeducation to forced labour, the report states.
The report says, “Independent experts estimate that between 900,000 and 1.8 million Uighur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims have been detained in more than 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang—an estimate revised upward since the previous reporting period. Individuals have been sent to the camps for wearing long beards, refusing alcohol, or other behaviours authorities deem to be signs of “religious extremism.”
