One province in particular, Xinjiang, is facing mounting denouncement as more details arise about working conditions for members of the Uyghur Muslim minority.
According to the New York Times, while China produces 75 percent of the world's lithium-ion batteries, much of the raw material is mined somewhere else. In recent years, though, the Chinese government has set their sights on managing all aspects of the supply chain.
In order to compete with different nations, China has ramped up production in the western province of Xinjiang, home to the country's Uyghur Muslim minority.
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As the Times reports, companies like Xinjiang Nonferrous Metal Industry Group have partnered with the Chinese government to move hundreds of Uyghurs from the south to the industrialized north where they are put to work in mines, smelters, and factories producing lithium, nickel, manganese, beryllium, copper and gold.
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While such companies deny that their workers are mistreated, reports reveal that Uyghurs are subject to what could easily be deemed to be forced labor.
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Uyghurs who decline to work in accordance with Chinese government policies are usually transmitted to internment camps, and in May it was revealed that many of those camps have a "shoot-to-kill" policy for those who try to escape.
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Thus, the official argument that "all employment is voluntary" is not supported.
In addition to forced labor, Uyghurs are further subjected to re-education, wherein government-appointed "teachers" effort to create loyal subjects to the country and communist regime.
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On June 21, a new law will go into effect in the United States called the "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act." As NPR reports, it gives the US authority to get goods made in Xinjiang unless companies can prove they did not engage in forced labor practices.
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Environmental realist, author, and California gubernatorial candidate Michael Shellenberger is one of many calling on the Biden administration to go one more step and ban the importation of all goods from Xinjiang. He states the U.S. should rather focus on manufacturing green technology at home.
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As he points out, though, the choice would face pushback from both Democrats "who don't want to slow the deployment of solar panels and electric cars in the US," and "free market Republicans."
The world has shone a spotlight on the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, though it remains to be seen whether the Communist Party and the companies to which it is so closely tied will change their practices.