China forced labour issue in Xinjiang: Solar companies now tracing supply chains

A group of 175 companies involved in the industry, including Chinese leaders such as Longi Green Energy Technology Co. and JA Solar Technology Co. along with global utility giants Duke Energy Corp. and Engie SA., signed up to a written pledge which also demands increased transparency efforts, reports Bloomberg.

They’ll aid development of a system to identify the source of raw materials and inputs along the supply chain that ultimately produces photovoltaic panels, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, a U.S.-based trade group which works with about 1,000 firms, it reported.

The move has been made after the US earlier said it will ban products made in Xinjiang.

Who are Uighur Muslims?

Uighur Muslims are a Turkic minority ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. It is now widely publicized that their human rights are crushed by China and they were sent to "re-education camps" by the communist regime in Beijing.

The Uighurs are recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

An American representative at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said in 2018 that the committee had received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uyghurs in China have been held in "re-education camps" by the Chinese authorities.