Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to the Biden Administration detailing how funding for green technology contributes to the ongoing human rights abuses in China. The imporation of solar panels from China under the Inflation Reduction Act will make it more difficult for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to adhere to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), the letter describes. The UFLPA states all materials from the Xinjiang reason are deemed to be made with forced labor unless said otherwise by the CBP. “U.S. taxpayers will likely pay tens of billions of dollars in subsidies, grants, and tax credits for solar panels,” the letter says. “Absent vigorous oversight however, this funding is likely to go directly toward subsidizing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) forced labor apparatus that produces a vast majority of solar panels in the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”
From The Epoch Times:
The letter, signed by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.), said that much of the world’s supply of materials required for solar panel production is based in China and, specifically, in Xinjiang. ... “We are deeply concerned that the American taxpayer will be subsidizing the CCP’s solar industry and therefore subsidizing forced labor and human rights abuses,” the letter said. ... “Furthermore, the Biden Administration has sent signals that seem to encourage importing solar panel products in violation of the UFLPA. President Biden’s decision to stop investigating solar panels imported from Southeast Asian countries using components from the PRC sends a further wrong signal that this administration is unconcerned with America’s reliance on forced labor.”
