The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has placed millions of indigenous Uyghur and Kazakh citizens from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR or Uyghur Region) into what the government calls “surplus labour” (富余劳动力) and “labour transfer” (劳动力转移)programmes. An official PRC government report published in November 2020 documents the “placement” of 2.6 million minoritised citizens in jobs in farms and factories within the Uyghur Region and across the country through these state-sponsored “surplus labour” and “labour transfer” initiatives. The government claims that these programmes are in accordance with PRC law and that workers are engaged voluntarily, in a concerted government-supported effort to alleviate poverty. However, significant evidence – largely drawn from government and corporate sources – reveals that labour transfers are deployed in the Uyghur Region within an environment of unprecedented coercion, undergirded by the constant threat of re-education and internment. Many indigenous workers are unable to refuse or walk away from these jobs, and thus the programmes are tantamount to forcible transfer of populations and enslavement.

It is critical that we examine the particular goods that are being produced as a result of this forced labour regime. This paper focuses on just one of those industries – the solar energy industry – and reveals the ways forced labour in the Uyghur Region can pervade an entire supply chain and reach deep into international markets. We concluded that the solar industry is particularly vulnerable to forced labour in the Uyghur Region because:

• 95% of solar modules rely on one primary material – solar-grade polysilicon.
• Polysilicon manufacturers in the Uyghur Region account for approximately 45% of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon supply.
• All polysilicon manufacturers in the Uyghur Region have reported their participation in labour transfer programmes and/or are supplied by raw materials companies that have.
• In 2020, China produced an additional 30% of the world’s polysilicon on top of that produced in the Uyghur Region, a significant proportion of which may be affected by forced labour in the Uyghur Region as well.

In the course of this research, we identified:

• 11 companies engaged in labour transfers
• 4 additional companies located within industrial parks that have accepted labour transfers
• 90 Chinese and international companies whose supply chains are affected

This report seeks to increase the knowledge base upon which the solar industry determines its exposures to forced labour in the Uyghur Region. We investigated the entire solar module supply chain from quartz to panel to better understand the extent to which forced labour in the Uyghur region affects international value chains. The examples of engagement in these programs are meant to provide stakeholders with the evidence base upon which to judge risk of exposure to forced labour in the solar supply chain.

Evidence base

The evidence of forced labour in the Uyghur Region is expansive and growing. The Forced Labour Lab is committed to making evidence and data regarding the oppression of minoritised citizens in the Uyghur region available to the public.

The evidence presented in the report is all publicly available. However, due to the frequency with which corporate reports, news, and social media pages are removed from the web, all websites referred to in the paper have been archived through the Archive.Today website. Archived versions of pdfs are only screenshots of the website, so those materials are collected here. Materials presented below can be used to understand the industry better and illustrate the investment of solar/polysilicon industry in Xinjiang.

Corporate Reports

Corporate disclosures play an important role in understanding the supply chain. These are some of the reports we refer to in our report. (We have not included the cited US SEC filings here because they are easily accessible for free online.)

Corporate reports are available through a Google Drive (44 reports). 

Government Reports, Rulings, and Directives

Local and regional governments provide cadres with specific instructions as to how to operate labour transfers and surplus labour programmes. These directives and reports help us to understand the way the state is integrally involved in labour recruitment practices in the Uyghur Region.

• Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan for the National Economic and Social Development of the XUAR (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Final Review Ruling of the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC on the Countervailing Measures Applicable to Imported Solar-grade Polysilicon Originating in the United States (PDF, 724.4KB)
• Liurui 2016 Hami Liurui 13th Division Liushuquan Farm Phase I 20MW Photovoltaic Power Project Water and Soil Conservation Facilities Summary report (PDF, 31.2MB)

Industrial Parks

Industrial parks play a central role in the development of the industry in the Uyghur Region, as well as in the transfer of labour.

• Shanshan 2020 Shanshan Longsheng Carbon Manufacturing Environmental Protection Acceptance Monitoring Report (PDF, 1.6MB)
• Shanshan Longsheng 2020 The Environmental Protection Acceptance Monitoring Report of Shanshan Longsheng Carbon Manufacturing Co., Ltd. with an Annual Output of 10,000 Tons of Special Graphite Comprehensive Utilization Project (PDF, 1.7MB)
• Shanshan County People's Government Network—Wusman Yiliniyazi (PDF, 586.3KB)
• Shanshan stone park 2019 Implementation Evaluation Report of Xinjiang Shanshan Stone Industrial Park Master Plan (2005-2020) (PDF, 3.5MB)
• Xinyuan Industrial Park 2015 Investment Guide (PDF, 4.3MB)
• Yili Jincheng 2019 Environmental Impact Report on the Pipe Manufacturing Project of Yili Jincheng Jiaye Pipe Manufacturing Co., Ltd (PDF, 6MB)
• Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture 2017 Investment Promotion Documents (PDF, 2.5MB)
• Yongxiang 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility Report (PDF, 424.8KB)

Peking University report on minority labourers in Xinjiang.

• Li Xiaoxia, “新疆少数民族产业工人队伍发展及现状分析” [An analysis of the development and status of Xinjiang minority industrial workers], Peking University Department of Sociology, 2015 (PDF, 1.4MB). 

Industry Responses to Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region

• SEIA Supply Chain Traceability Protocol v1.0 April 2021 (PDF, 1.8MB)
• Corporate Responses to Requests for Information (PDF, 1MB) (Updated: 14 November 2023) 
  *reflects Hoshine's response on November 14, 2023