Forced labor from China’s Uighur Muslims “behind global supply of solar panels”

Uyghur men imprisoned at the Lop County #4 Re-Education Camp, Xinjiang, China. They are forced to listen to “de-radicalization” lectures. Photo: Weixin

By Sam Courtney-Guy
15 May 2021

(MetroUK) – A huge chunk of the world’s solar panels production depends on forced labour from China’ Uighur Muslims, according to new research.

An investigation by Sheffield Hallam University estimates almost half of global supplies of polysilicon are produced by Uighurs under conditions ‘tantamount to enslavement’ in their home province of Xinjiang [In Broad Daylight: Uyghur Forced Labour and Global Solar Supply Chains (pdf) –Des].

Some 95 per cent of all solar panels need polysilicon, used to make cells which convert light into electricity. More than 90 per cent of all polysilicon ends up being used for this purpose.

The other 10 per cent is used to make semiconductors – key components in smartphones, laptops, and various other devices using electrical circuits.

The solar supply chain is relatively easy to map, and identifying forced labour exposure in Xinjiang is less of a challenge than in industries such as textiles or agriculture. And doing so is critical, as it would not only address the forced labour issue in Xinjiang but would also substantially reduce the carbon emissions of the solar industry. From a human rights and climate perspective, the alternative of basing our green energy future on coal’s high carbon emissions and on the forced labour of oppressed communities is a higher and longer-term price to pay.
Laura T. Murphy and Nyrola Elimä, In Broad Daylight: Uyghur Forced Labour and Global Solar Supply Chains, p. 8

China has come under intense international scrutiny for its treatment of Uighurs, notably in mass ‘re-education’ camps where former detainees claim to have experienced a system of mass torture, rape and forced sterilisation of women.

Officials deny human rights abuses and say the programmes are designed to ‘rehabilitate’ offenders linked to ‘terrorism’ in the province.

The government freely admits to the ‘placement’ of 2.6 million ‘minoritised’ citizens in various factory and farm jobs in Xinjiang and other provinces, but insists they are all taking part in voluntary ‘labour transfer’ schemes.

The researchers pieced together dozens of documents issued by Chinese authorities and companies. They said ‘labour transfers are deployed in the Uighur Region within an environment of unprecedented coercion, undergirded by the constant threat of re-education and internment.’ [more]

Forced labour from China’s Uighur Muslims ‘behind global supply of solar panels’

Satellite view of Southern Shanshan Stone Materials Industrial Park (Top) and the ASPI-identified internment camp / factory co-location in the northeastern corner of the park (bottom), showing a double-perimeter fence and wall for imprisoning slave laborers. Photo: Google Earth Pro

In Broad Daylight: Uyghur Forced Labour and Global Solar Supply Chains

14 May 2021 (Sheffield Hallam University) – The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has placed millions of indigenous Uyghur and Kazakh citizens from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR or Uyghur Region) into what the government calls “surplus labour” (富余劳动力) and “labour transfer” (劳动力转移) programmes. An official PRC government report published in November 2020 documents the “placement” of 2.6 million minoritised citizens in jobs in farms and factories within the Uyghur Region and across the country through these state-sponsored “surplus labour” and “labour transfer” initiatives. The government claims that these programmes are in accordance with PRC law and that workers are engaged voluntarily, in a concerted government-supported effort to alleviate poverty. However, significant evidence – largely drawn from government and corporate sources – reveals that labour transfers are deployed in the Uyghur Region within an environment of unprecedented coercion, undergirded by the constant threat of re-education and internment. Many indigenous workers are unable to refuse or walk away from these jobs, and thus the programmes are tantamount to forcible transfer of populations and enslavement. [In Broad Daylight: Uyghur Forced Labour and Global Solar Supply Chains (pdf) –Des]

It is critical that we examine the particular goods that are being produced as a result of this forced labour regime. This paper focuses on just one of those industries – the solar energy industry – and reveals the ways forced labour in the Uyghur Region can pervade an entire supply chain and reach deep into international markets. We concluded that the solar industry is particularly vulnerable to forced labour in the Uyghur Region because:

Satellite view of the Xinyuan Industrial Park Site in 2016 and 2019 showing the construction of a detention camp for slave laborers. Photo: Google Earth Pro

95% of solar modules rely on one primary material – solar-grade polysilicon.
Polysilicon manufacturers in the Uyghur Region account for approximately 45% of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon supply.
All polysilicon manufacturers in the Uyghur Region have reported their participation in labour transfer programmes and/or are supplied by raw materials companies that have.
In 2020, China produced an additional 30% of the world’s polysilicon on top of that produced in the Uyghur Region, a significant proportion of which may be affected by forced labour in the Uyghur Region as well.

In the course of this research, we identified:

11 companies engaged in labour transfers
4 additional companies located within industrial parks that have accepted labour transfers
90 Chinese and international companies whose supply chains are affected

This report seeks to increase the knowledge base upon which the solar industry determines its exposures to forced labour in the Uyghur Region. We investigated the entire solar module supply chain from quartz to panel to better understand the extent to which forced labour in the Uyghur region affects international value chains. The examples of engagement in these programs are meant to provide stakeholders with the evidence base upon which to judge risk of exposure to forced labour in the solar supply chain.

Evidence base

The evidence of forced labour in the Uyghur Region is expansive and growing. The Forced Labour Lab is committed to making evidence and data regarding the oppression of minoritised citizens in the Uyghur region available to the public.

The evidence presented in the report is all publicly available. However, due to the frequency with which corporate reports, news, and social media pages are removed from the web, all websites referred to in the paper have been archived through the Archive.Today website. Archived versions of pdfs are only screenshots of the website, so those materials are collected here. Materials presented below can be used to understand the industry better and illustrate the investment of solar/polysilicon industry in Xinjiang.

Chart showing downstream customers of Hoshine Silicon Industry and Daqo New Energy > JinkoSolar, companies that use forced labor to produce polysilicon. Graphic: Murphy, L and Elimä, N., 2021 / Sheffield Hallam University

Corporate Reports

Corporate disclosures play an important role in understanding the supply chain. These are some of the reports we refer to in our report. (We have not included the cited US SEC filings here because they are easily accessible for free online.)

Government Reports, Rulings, and Directives

Local and regional governments provide cadres with specific instructions as to how to operate labour transfers and surplus labour programmes. These directives and reports help us to understand the way the state is integrally involved in labour recruitment practices in the Uyghur Region.