China’s Solar Industry Redesigned Itself Around U.S. Forced Labor Law
18th May 2026
Last month, firsthand testimony from a former Han Chinese police officer who supervised Uyghur labor transfers in Xinjiang described how the system works. Workers are taken to cotton fields under armed escort. Identity cards are confiscated to prevent escape. Those who refuse state-mandated assignments are sent to short-term detention facilities where, in the officer’s words, they are “intentionally subjected to hardship and suffering” until they comply.
The same coercion architecture underpins the labor that sustains Chinese crystalline silicon solar manufacturers, which continue to seek access to the U.S. market.
Five years after the United States moved to specifically ban Uyghur forced labor, it remains the largest system of state-imposed forced labor in the world – and it is larger than ever. Our research found that China recorded more than 3 million labor transfers of Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in 2025. This was the highest figure on record and a year-on-year increase, despite the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which was meant to curb the practice. China’s silicon solar industry, which has lobbied for years to preserve its access to the U.S. market, remains an active participant in it.
People lose track of the fact that a Communist country is a Communist country, and acts like a Communist country whenever they think they can get away with it.