In September, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region presented us with a gratifying scene. In the vast cotton field, plump white cotton bolls, dotted by green leaves, hang on the branches. Facing the upcoming large-scale cotton harvest season, farmers are making solid preparations before mechanized cotton harvesting to ensure its safety and order.
However, these scenes of ordinary people working and living in Xinjiang are portrayed as “forced labor” by the West. On June 21 this year, the so-called “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA)” signed by US President Joe Biden took effect. This “evil law” classifies all products produced in Xinjiang as products of “forced labor”, and bans the import of any products related to Xinjiang. This kind of “long-arm jurisdiction” over China is no other than imposing an import ban on all cotton and textile products from Xinjiang. The malicious oppression by the US, which, in essence, is unfair competition and repression against China, aims to exclude China from the global industrial supply chain.
Attempts to crack down on Xinjiang textile industry and seize control
Why does the US block Xinjiang’s industrial supply chain? The core reason is that the market, monopolized by the West for centuries, is about to break down. In recent years, the US has built a perfect closed-loop supply chain, production and processing—brand—channel—terminal—user, in which production and processing are left to Southeast Asia and China and market to franchisees. But as for brand and channel, these two links with maximum profits are monopolized by themselves. Therefore, the US keeps a tight rein on the entire global supply chain of the textile industry.
Xinjiang cotton is recognized as natural high-quality fiber material in the global industry, accounting for about 20% of the total global cotton production. It is an important raw material that guarantees the healthy and sustainable development of the textile industry in China and even the world. With the development and rise of Xinjiang cotton, China’s voice in international cotton pricing is becoming louder and heard by more countries.
The restriction and repression on Chinese textile enterprises and sanctions on Xinjiang cotton and textile products imposed by the US are an attempt to prevent China’s textile industry from entering the global supply chain market under the pretext of human rights. In fact, the US wants to pull China down from the throne of global textile leader, undermine China’s absolute dominance of the global textile industry, and then reconstruct the global cotton supply chain and value chain.
Exclusion of the China’s PV industry from the global supply chain
In order to exclude China’s photovoltaic industry from the global industrial supply chain, the US put four photovoltaic module manufacturers in Xinjiang on its “entity list” under the pretext of “forced labor”. On the basis of UFLPA, the US has imposed comprehensive sanctions on photovoltaic enterprises in Xinjiang and banned US enterprises from cooperating with any photovoltaic products related to Xinjiang.
As the world’s largest photovoltaic manufacturing and installation country, 96% of the world’s silicon wafers are made in China, and Xinjiang is the world’s most important production base of polysilicon, the basic material of the photovoltaic industry.
Xinjiang is a “core area of Silk Road Economic Belt” under the “Belt and Road Initiative” and a major channel connecting neighboring ports and the Eurasian continent. The US sanctions on Xinjiang-related supply chains will restrict exports of Xinjiang products and also undermine China’s international image and status. Besides, the US intends to utilize the Xinjiang-related Human Rights Act as a primary tool to strategically block and comprehensively contain the “Belt and Road Initiative”, to weaken the international community’s overall recognition of China and its initiative.
