Apple’s Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett have done business with a Chinese wind energy giant linked to controversial government and labor programs in Xinjiang, where the US and other countries allege China The nation is carrying out a genocide of the Muslim minority.
Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology, China’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, on at least one occasion entered into negotiations to receive “labor exports” from Xinjiang’s Hotan district to a facility hundreds of miles away. , New research from the Technology Transparency Project has found. Official Hotan travel to the Goldwind factory to “coordinate” the export of labor, as part of efforts to strengthen “organizational and disciplinary education” for workers, according to an archived document. local government media reports discovered by the Technology Transparency Project.
“Labor transfer” programs are closely linked to Mandatory work for Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. “Forced labor has now become an integral part of the government’s effort to ‘re-educate’ the Muslim minority,” said Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. written in 2019, as part of extensive research on the issue.
Goldwind, one of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers, has close ties to the ruling Communist Party, typified by many successful Chinese companies. But its connections to Xinjiang are unusual. The company’s CEO has made clear statements in support of a government program that places Communist Party cadres into the homes of Muslim families in Xinjiang. In December, Goldwind signed an agreement with the Xinjiang Construction and Manufacturing Corps, a paramilitary group that the US put sanctions last year because of its links to human rights abuses in the region.
It’s not clear whether the 2016 “labor export” talks will be successful, but the plans raise “troublesome questions about whether the wind turbine company is involved in exploiting Uyghurs in the region.” hometown Xinjiang or not,” the Technology Transparency Project said in its report, released today.
In response to questions for this article, Goldwind said that “the information and allegations from the Technology Transparency Project are completely false and have no basis in fact,” adding that Goldwind has never been involved in force the export of labor from any part of China and do not use forced labor of any kind.
Goldwind also said the wind turbines it supplies in North America and other regions are manufactured and assembled on the east coast of China, not in Xinjiang.
The Chinese government is running a campaign monitor, detention, and forced labor targeted Xinjiang’s millions of Muslim minorities including the Uighurs, Kazaks and others. The program has drawn strong criticism from United Nations officials and governments including the US, EU and Canada.
In 2016, Apple invested in four wind power projects with Beijing Tianrun New Energy Investment, a subsidiary of Goldwind that operates wind farms in China. Tianrun gave Apple a 30% stake in each project. No wind projects are located in Xinjiang. Apple said all the projects were completed in 2017, and Goldwind hasn’t delivered them since.
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives said: told the state newspaper China Daily at the time, adding that it would allow Apple to send clean energy to its suppliers in China.
“Looking for the presence of forced labor is part of every assessment we conduct in every country where we do business,” Apple said in response to questions about this article. “We monitor this closely and over the past year, despite the limitations of COVID-19, we have conducted further investigations and have found no evidence of forced labor anywhere. in our supply chain.”
In October 2018, Berkshire Hathaway Energy provide finance for Goldwind subsidiary based in Chicago for development Wind farm 250 million USD in McCulloch County, Texas, known as the Rattlesnake Wind Project. Goldwind project sold, which it has described as the largest in the US, in November 2020.
Berkshire Hathaway did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Goldwind’s connection to Xinjiang raises more difficult questions for Western companies doing business with China’s rapidly growing alternative energy sector. News about BuzzFeed reported in January that solar energy relies heavily on key components used in solar panels mainly manufactured in Xinjiang.
Goldwind accounts for 21% of the country’s wind energy market, according to data from BloombergNEF. It have state-owned shareholders, including the state-owned power company China Three Gorges Corporation. The company’s net income in 2020 nearly 35% increase to $452.4 million from a year earlier.
The U.S. government banned the import of tomatoes and cotton from Xinjiang, said the two industries are entangled in forced labor. But Xinjiang’s biggest export to the US in 2020 is actually wind turbines, South China Morning Post reported in December, citing Chinese government trade data.
Xizhou Zhou, head of global power market research firm IHS Markit of market research firm IHS Markit, said:
Wu Gang, founder and president of Goldwind, visits southern Xinjiang – the part of the region where the Uighurs make up the majority of the population – at least six times a year for “poverty alleviation work.” regarding living and dining with families in the village because of government requests, according to a 2018 post published by Goldwind’s company account on the Chinese social media platform WeChat and was discovered by the Technology Transparency Project. The trips are part of a controversial government program known in Chinese as fanghuiju, an acronym for the slogan “Visit the people, bring benefits to the people and join hands.”
Wu’s participation in the program is described as part of Goldwind’s job to be a good “corporate citizen”. During these trips, Wu played soccer with local children and established “cultural stations,” the article said.
But fanghuiju program to facilitate state surveillance, according to a 2018 survey of Human Rights Watch. During these visits, which can last several days, “families are asked to provide officials with information about their lives and political views, and are subject to political propaganda.” Human Rights Watch said. The group called on the government to immediately end the program, adding that there was no evidence that families had the right to refuse these visits. The fanghuiju programme also allowed Human Rights Watch says the government collects data on ethnic minorities to help determine who is detained.
Wu is a former member of China’s rubber stamp parliament, National Congress of People’s Deputies, and still participates in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a legislative body with primarily ceremonial functions.
Goldwind sign its agreement with a division of the Xinjiang Construction and Manufacturing Corps in December – four months after the United States imposed sanctions on the organization – to give power to a small city called Beitun.
Goldwind’s vast presence in the market has earned it a number of Western business partners. The Las Lomas wind project in southern Texas, consisting of 48 wind turbines spread over 36,000 acres near the Mexican border, is run by French energy company Engie and sold power to Microsoft. An investigation by the South China Morning Post Shipping records and other official data show Las Lomas sourced its wind turbines from Xinjiang Goldwind. Wu said Engie be a great customer of the company’s subsidiary Goldwind International.
“Regarding the situation of Uyghurs in China, Engie has decided to conduct a specific audit of their relevant suppliers,” the company said in response to questions from BuzzFeed News. The company is committed to ensuring that forced labor is not used in its supply chain.
Closer scrutiny of Apple’s work in China has increased in recent months. Information reported in May that it and two human rights groups discovered seven Apple suppliers involved in programs related to forced labor. At least five of them “received thousands of Uyghurs and other minority workers at specific factory or subsidiary locations that used to work for Apple,” the publication said, adding that one supplier Apple operated a factory next to a suspected detention camp in Xinjiang.
“We urge Apple CEO Tim Cook to divest from Chinese suppliers in Xinjiang who are involved in forced labor,” said US Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative James P. . to ensure that no Apple imports are made with forced labour.There is a need for a synchronized, tough, and global response to the atrocities being committed in Xinjiang. .”
