The US Bans Import of Chinese Solar Energy Materials

On Thursday, the United States banned the import of materials from the Chinese company Hoshine Silicon, which is one of the world's largest producers of silicon used to make solar panels.

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The White House argued that this decision is a consequence of the commitments made at the G7 summit in Cornwall (U.K), where President Joe Biden promised that he would fight against the violation of labor rights in the province of Xinjiang in China.

According to the United States, there is forced labor in the commodity supply chains in Xinjiang, a region where the Uighur ethnic minority resides and Hoshine Silicon has its main factory.

The Biden administration also imposed sanctions on Xinjiang Daqo New Energy, Xinjiang East Hope Nonferrous Metals, Xinjiang GCL New Energy Material Technology, and XPCC.

China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that his country strongly condemns the United States imposing sanctions on Chinese companies based on lies and false information.

"The so-called 'forced labor' and 'genocide' in Xinjiang are the biggest lie of the century. The U.S. abused its ‘entity list’ to suppress Xinjiang's photovoltaic industry, based on fabrications. Such actions not only violate international trade rules and the principles of the market economy but also undermine the global industrial and supply chains," he explained.

From cotton to the photovoltaic industry, and from agriculture to industry, the United States uses human rights as a disguise to do all it could to cripple the industrial development in Xinjiang.

"What the U.S. does is detrimental to Xinjiang people's rights to subsistence and development, and also exposes that what they are after is not facts, truth or Xinjiang people's well-being, but to create 'forced unemployment' and 'forced poverty' to mess up Xinjiang and contain China's development," Zhao said.