Chinese forced labour and renewable supply chains: how big is the problem?

Bertie speaks to Professor Laura Murphy about international supply chains and forced labour in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, where more than a million Uyghur people have been detained in concentration camps.

The solar panel industry has been disentangling itself from the Uyghur genocide for several years, since researchers publicised how much polysilicon was produced by Uyghur forced labour. Professor Murphy's work has now found that the electric vehicle industry is risking a similar path, and that China uses Xinjiang as a production zone exempt from climatic or environmental regulation.

Podcast edited by Vasko Kostovski.

Read Professor Murphy's reports: 

• Driving Force: Automotive Supply Chains and Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region (2022)
• Built on repression: PVC building materials' reliance on forced labor and environmental abuses in the Uyghur region (2022)
• Financing & Genocide: Development Finance and the Crisis in the Uyghur Region (2022)
• In broad daylight: Uyghur forced labour in global solar supply chains (2021)
• And more on the Helena Kennedy Centre website.

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