The US government's Department of Commerce has banned imports of silicon from Hoshine Silicon Industry, the world's largest silicon metal producer, and four other companies in China's Uygur region, which the US accuses of using forced labor.
Hoshine, and other banned companies, produce polysilicon which is used in computer chips. These are needed for solar energy panels but are in acutely short supply in the US and elsewhere at the moment."These entities have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other members of Muslim...