Editor's note: CGTN's First Voice provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The daily column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events.
An article published by Politico on Monday night indirectly cited sources close to U.S. President Joe Biden that the White House was considering a ban on the import of solar panels manufactured in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region under the pretense of "forced labor." Despite a lack of tangible evidence, allegations have surfaced surrounding this for a while in Washington D.C. circles.
The move comes amid Biden's drive to counter climate change both at home and around the world, but in addition an attempt to ramp up the production of renewable products at home, of which China has dominated in global markets.
Unsurprisingly, this move is both hypocritical and logically self-defeating. If Biden pushes ahead with such a decision, it is obviously motivated by protectionism and opportunism, as opposed to serious or proven concerns of so-called "forced labor."
On the other hand, the results will arguably be economically disastrous. They come at a time whereby the costs of raw materials and production costs are surging, U.S. inflation is rocketing and under no circumstances would the U.S. be capable of replicating the price range or for that matter, quality of solar panels as produced by China. This will be a massive set back to Biden's vision.
Xinjiang forced labor weapon
The United States has weaponized the Xinjiang issue as a strategic tool to advance containment of China and to manufacture consent for various sanctions policies in multiple fields. False allegations concerning the region were first used to garnish political capital against Huawei and other technology firms in China, to place them on the Commerce Department Entity list.
Secondly and in line with this sector, forced labor allegations surrounding the region have been utilized in order to incentivize decoupling and supply chain shifts from the region, first starting with cotton but now as U.S. preferences shift, moving into other sectors too. Essentially, any Chinese industry which the U.S. feels it cannot compete in is now targeted with allegations of forced labor.
Xinjiang accounts for about 45 percent of the world's polysilicon. To establish solar panels from this is a highly sophisticated and advanced process which cannot be accounted for by so-called "forced labor." At the beginning of the year, Washington D.C. circles began to propagate this myth in line with the Biden administration's goals of producing more green technology in the United States.
A PV power plant in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, September 20, 2018. /Xinhua
The claims emerged from a mysterious right-wing consultancy firm titled "Horizon Advisory." It's a newly created single purpose anti-China organization funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, peddling falsehoods against the Chinese solar firms GCL-Poly, East Hope Group, Daqo New Energy, Xinte Energy and Jinko Solar. It has never, at any point in time, provided serious evidence for its work ever directly or indirectly, and lauded a "if we cannot prove they are not doing it, they are guilty" line of argument.
Self-defeating
However, sanctions on regional production in Xinjiang will create a catastrophic void in the global supply chain. This will wipe out nearly half of the world's polysilicon production, create supply chain shortages, and send commodity costs soaring, something that is already happening in other sectors.
Where, for example, does the U.S. intend to source the material from in order to make its own solar panels? And how, for that matter, could it do so in such an affordable way without any kind of existing market share? These are just a few of the reasons which will massively set back the U.S. green effort as opposed to advancing it.
In this case, should Biden enact this policy it would be immensely detrimental to his own foreign policy goals. It is motivated by a lust for "America First" economics, legitimated by the sleazy underbelly of anti-China opportunism and the wholesale weaponization of Xinjiang as strategic propaganda.
China in turn will take appropriate measures to defend its own industries, as entrenched by the new anti-sanctions law which not only prohibits local implementation of these measures by actors within China, but also creates claims for compensation. China is ready to defend its key sectors whereby necessary against false smears.
(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)