COP26 is over. The foie gras was delicious. A few new affairs were consummated in a Glasgow hotel, the kind with its own perfume scent made by Penhaligon’s in London. But even better, the planet feels somehow cleaner now that Joe Biden and Xi Jinping have agreed to fight climate change together. Greta and her friends must feel like winners.
Chinese Communist Party boss Xi Jinping has played the Western world’s fear of climate change like a seven-stringed zither. But human rights violations and calls to Build Back Better playing second fiddle to China should worry everyone, including those concerned about climate change.
The “deal” by China to reduce coal use – by 2030 – is a non-deal. What did the U.S. give up for Xi’s word? On Veteran’s Day, Homeland Security gave prison labor user Hoshine Silicon Industry a pass. The Commerce Department dropped a potential case against Chinese multinationals in Southeast Asia accused of dumping solar products into the United States by an undisclosed group of U.S.-based manufacturers.
China: 2. U.S.: 0.
Why zero? Because replacing our use of fossil fuel with Chinese-made solar is more Build Beijing Better. China is at least 80 percent of the global solar supply chain.
And part of it relies on prison labor.
John Kerry was asked about labor abuses of Muslims in Xinjiang, the most infamous province in China. Homeland banned Hoshine polysilicon, a key ingredient in making solar cells that get plugged into solar panels, from being part of the U.S. supply chain this year. It was guilty until proven innocent for Hoshine. But on Nov. 11, Homeland did a 180 and said Hoshine can be innocent until proven guilty.
Hoshine gets most of its polysilicon from Xinjiang, at the Shanshan Stone Industrial Park. The park engages in Uyghur labor transfers from two internment camps identified by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which are located within the boundaries of that park.
Kerry’s response: “Human rights issues are not my swim lane. I’m the climate guy.”
China solar importers, represented by the Solar Energy Industry Association, want to end solar tariffs. Tariffs were imposed by Trump. China’s “climate change peace deal” is about one thing: China making your solar, your EV car battery materials, and – once they bury Europe, it’ll be wind.
China solar importers have downplayed human rights abuses in the supply chain on one hand while placating Washington legislators on the other in saying they won’t stand for such abuse. If they won’t stand for such abuse, then why discuss downplaying it in the first place? They won over Kerry on this issue, who thinks he is saving the planet instead.
Since elected, everyone was waiting to see what Biden’s China strategy would be. This is the first crack in the trade war. If solar tariffs are removed in 2022, China will be singing Let’s go, Brandon. Only in a positive way.
