Export restrictions apply to companies that produce raw materials for the solar panel industry in Xinjiang.

The United States on Wednesday restricted exports to five Chinese companies and said these companies are implicated in China’s human rights violations, including large polysilicon producers in the solar panel industry.

These companies have been included in the list for human rights violations and abuse of power Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, According to documents submitted by the U.S. government on Wednesday. The US Department of Commerce stated that these companies are accepting or using forced labor.

Companies that have been added to the list of entities of the Ministry of Commerce include Hexin Silicon; Xinjiang Dake New Energy, a subsidiary of Dake New Energy; Xinjiang Dongfang Hope Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Shanghai manufacturing giant Dongfang Hope Group; Xinjiang GCL New Energy Materials and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC).

At least some companies are major monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon manufacturers for Solar panel production.

US officials have hinted that the administration of President Joe Biden is considering restricting Chinese solar producers in Xinjiang, where most of the global polysilicon supply for solar panels comes from Xinjiang.

U.S. President’s Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, speaks at a press conference at the White House on April 22, 2021 [File: Tom Brenner/Reuters]

“My understanding is that the Biden administration is currently assessing whether this will become Sanctions,” Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry told the U.S. House of Representatives in May, referring to solar products in Xinjiang.

This corps In the 1950s, he was sent to Xinjiang to build farms and settlements. Its energy and agricultural sectors in the region are still strong, operating almost like a parallel country.

U.S. also Prohibition of import of cotton In December, the Corps used “slave labor” as an excuse.

Foreign governments and human rights activists say that it has always been a force of repression and repression. Monitor Uighurs in the area operate a number of detention camps. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Corps last year for “serious violation of the rights of ethnic minorities.”

In March, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on two other Chinese officials involved in serious cases. Human rights violation In the Xinjiang region of China, Washington says that Muslims are victims of genocide. One of the officials sanctioned was Wang Junzheng, the party secretary of the Corps.

Both the Biden administration and the previous administrations of former President Donald Trump took a harsh approach to China’s treatment of Uighurs.

The Trump administration announced China’s actions in Xinjiang”Genocide“In January, shortly before Biden took office.

Biden Promote world leaders He took action against forced labor in Xinjiang during his first international visit in April.