A Xinjiang supplier of the world’s leading solar cell manufacturers has rebuffed allegations of forced labour practices, as the US considers imposing sanctions that threaten the remote Chinese region’s dominance of solar supply chains.
Daqo New Energy, one of Xinjiang’s largest polysilicon makers, has mounted a public-relations campaign to combat the allegations, and last week hosted a media tour attended by the Financial Times. The campaign was the latest step in a sweeping propaganda effort by Beijing to counter foreign allegations of human rights abuses and genocide in the region.
Over the past decade, the Xinjiang government has used subsidies, preferential tax policies and cheap power to secure a central position in the global supply chain for solar panels. The north-western region produces about 45 per cent of the world’s polysilicon, a material refined from quartz that is used in the vast majority of photovoltaic cells, devices that convert sunlight into electricity.