{"id":560831,"date":"2021-06-11T12:21:27","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T16:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=560831"},"modified":"2021-06-11T12:21:30","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T16:21:30","slug":"dem-support-for-chinese-forced-labor-sanctions-imperils-bidens-solar-energy-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-support-for-chinese-forced-labor-sanctions-imperils-bidens-solar-energy-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem Support for Chinese Forced Labor Sanctions Imperils Biden\u2019s Solar Energy Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdem-support-for-chinese-forced-labor-sanctions-imperils-bidens-solar-energy-agenda%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=560831&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"29.137123745819\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/\">Biden Administration<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">China competition bills in Senate, House target labor camps in region vital to green energy<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"736\" height=\"514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-668.jpeg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-667.jpeg 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/GettyImages-497496526_736x514-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/GettyImages-497496526_736x514-703x491.jpg 703w\" data-sizes=\"auto\"  style=\"display:none\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tA Chinese solar-panel worker in 2015 \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/collin-anderson\/\" title=\"Posts by Collin Anderson\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Collin Anderson<\/a> \u2022 June 11, 2021 12:10 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"118.04941735002\">\n<p>Congressional Democrats&#8217; growing appetite for sanctions targeting Chinese companies engaged in the use of forced labor could cripple President Joe Biden&#8217;s alternative energy aspirations.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Democrats voted Tuesday to pass a $250 billion China competition bill sponsored by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Sen. Todd Young (R., Ind.). The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democrats.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/DAV21A48.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">legislation<\/a> provides the Biden administration with &#8220;a broad range of tough authorities&#8221; to impose sanctions on Chinese entities &#8220;engaging in \u2026 the use of forced labor and other human rights abuses.&#8221; It also calls on the federal government to avoid reaching agreements &#8220;with any entity \u2026 that has any affiliation with a country that engages in forced labor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) in May introduced his own <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignaffairs.house.gov\/_cache\/files\/b\/9\/b98fd569-3e49-47c0-bb23-8fccf88d7274\/4E5106A7CF429C5C518C8C6003A94AFC.eagle-act-for-introduction---signed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">legislation<\/a> aimed at countering the communist nation. The bill calls for the outright ban of &#8220;all goods, wares, articles, or merchandise&#8221; produced &#8220;wholly or in part by forced labor from the People&#8217;s Republic of China.&#8221; Meeks is expected to incorporate the measure with Schumer and Young&#8217;s bill, which is now headed to the House.<\/p>\n<p>The interparty push to crack down on Chinese forced labor could force Biden to choose between his oft-touted &#8220;clean energy economy&#8221; and pledge to hold China accountable for its &#8220;genocide&#8221; against Uyghur Muslims. While Democrats&#8217; various China competition bills do not directly link the nation&#8217;s solar industry with its forced labor camps in Xinjiang, the region produces roughly half of the world&#8217;s polysilicon\u2014a raw material crucial to solar panel production.<\/p>\n<p>Biden administration climate envoy John Kerry <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/kerry-admits-slave-labor-fuels-chinas-green-energy-supply-chain\/\">conceded<\/a> in May that &#8220;some panels&#8221; manufactured in Xinjiang &#8220;are being produced with forced labor by Uyghurs.&#8221; Kerry added that the administration is considering sanctions against Xinjiang-made solar panels, but the White House has yet to offer an update and did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Should Schumer and Young&#8217;s bill reach Biden&#8217;s desk, the president may be pressed to tackle the issue sooner rather than later. While Biden has repeatedly pledged to address China&#8217;s human rights atrocities, his administration is also working to cooperate with the communist nation on climate change. Kerry in April said that any &#8220;differences on human rights&#8221; should not &#8220;get in the way of something that is as critical as dealing with climate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Biden&#8217;s $1.7 trillion infrastructure proposal aims to achieve 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035\u2014a goal that would require U.S. solar production to quadruple, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Such a large-scale expansion, however, is not feasible without Chinese manufacturers, Heartland Institute president James Taylor told the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s impossible to ramp up wind and solar power as the Biden administration desires without making our energy sector entirely dependent on China,&#8221; Taylor said.<\/p>\n<p>According to <em>Bloomberg Green<\/em>, at least three major Xinjiang-based polysilicon manufacturers have been linked to China&#8217;s forced labor camps, where up to two million Uyghurs are being detained. The owner of one factory, for example, reported accepting 121 &#8220;minority workers&#8221; from southern Xinjiang in 2019. Such ties to the Chinese Communist Party-run camps would undoubtedly place the manufacturers in lawmakers&#8217; crosshairs under the Senate and House competition bills.<\/p>\n<p>Meeks&#8217;s proposal also calls on the United States to &#8220;encourage the international community&#8221; to cut down on &#8220;the import of any goods&#8221; made with Chinese forced labor. If America&#8217;s top allies obliged, the limited supply of solar energy products would make it even more difficult for the Biden administration to fulfill its pledge.<\/p>\n<p>Congressional Democrats are not the only Biden associates pressing the administration to ban Xinjiang products. In a March letter, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka\u2014whose union endorsed Biden in 2020\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/solar-industrys-reliance-on-chinese-forced-labor-threatens-bidens-green-economy\/\">urged<\/a> the White House to block solar imports from the region because of &#8220;convincing evidence of systematic forced labor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Senate Republicans echoed the call just weeks later, when eight members introduced the Keep China Out of Solar Energy Act. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), who cosponsored the legislation, portrayed the decision to bar the import of Xinjiang-based goods as one of common sense.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we need to do is just say, \u2018You can&#8217;t purchase things that are made with forced labor,'&#8221; she told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. &#8220;A little bit of due diligence goes a very long way there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biden Administration China competition bills in Senate, House target labor camps in region vital to green energy  A Chinese solar-panel worker in 2015 \/ Getty Images &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2280022,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-668.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Dem Support for Chinese Forced Labor Sanctions Imperils Biden\u2019s Solar Energy Agenda","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-668.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Dem Support for Chinese Forced Labor Sanctions Imperils Biden\u2019s Solar Energy Agenda","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}