Apple Worked With a Consolidated Company in Xinjiang

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Apple’s Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett have done business with a powerful Chinese giant using state-of-the-art wind turbines and programs operating in Xinjiang, where the US and other countries say China is committing atrocities against minority Muslims.
Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology, China’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, once entered negotiations to receive “export of workers” from the Hotan region in Xinjiang to a remote location, a new study from the Tech Transparency Project has found. Hotan officials he walked to the Goldwind plant to “support” export operations, as part of a drive to promote “training and mentoring” for workers, according to the reserve Report by state media revealed by the Tech Transparency Project.
“Retirement” programs are highly interconnected forced labor for a few Muslims in Xinjiang. “Compulsory labor is now an important part of public service ‘re-educating’ minority Muslims,” Center for Strategic and International Study in Washington wrote in 2019, as part of his extensive research into the subject.
Goldwind, one of the world’s largest wind turbines, has a strong relationship with the Communist Party, which is one of China’s most successful companies. But his connection with Xinjiang is not unusual. The head of the company has stated his support for a government program that has put Communist officials in a Muslim home in Xinjiang. In December, Goldwind signed an agreement with Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a US-based military force imposed sanctions on last year for allegedly violating human rights in the region.
It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post, but it has not yet been decided whether he will do so. “The Tech Transparency Project said in a statement released today.
Responding to questions on the issue, Goldwind said “most of the allegations against the Tech Transparency Project are false and baseless,” adding that Goldwind did nothing to force export from any part of China and does not use any form of coercion.
Goldwind also said that wind turbines supplied to North America and other areas are manufactured and assembled on the east coast of China, not in Xinjiang.
The Chinese government is campaigning for monitoring, imprisonment, and forced labor following millions of Xinjiang Muslims including Uyghurs, Kazaks, and others. The program has strongly criticized UN officials and governments including the United States, the EU, and Canada.
In 2016, Apple put in it the four energy projects are Beijing Tianrun New Energy Investment, a Goldwind-funded company that runs wind power in China. Tianrun gave Apple a 30% share in each activity. There are no windmills in Xinjiang. Apple said the project was completed in 2017, and Goldwind has not offered it since.
The fund was part of Apple’s “commitment to reducing emissions from its invention,” Lisa Jackson, vice president of environmental affairs, policies and experiments at Apple, told the China Daily newspaper meanwhile, I add that it could help Apple send clean energy to its retailers in China.
“Looking at the presence of underprivileged people is part of every analysis we do in every country where we do business,” Apple said in response to questions about the issue. “We are looking into this and last year, despite the COVID-19’s ban, we investigated and found no evidence of coercion anywhere we find it.”
In October 2018, Berkshire Hathaway Energy gives money to Goldwind Company from Chicago to manufacture $ 250 million of wind in McCulloch County, Texas, called the Rattlesnake Wind Project. Goldwind sold the project, which he described as the largest in the US, in November 2020.
Berkshire Hathaway did not respond to a request for comment.
Goldwind’s links to Xinjiang raise serious questions for Western companies doing business with China’s fast-growing alternative to digital technology. BuzzFeed news was reported in January that solar energy is highly dependent on the components used in solar panels made in Xinjiang.
Goldwind controls 21% of global air markets, according to a BloombergNEF study. That it is owned by those who own state shares, including China state-owned electricity company Three Gorges Corporation. Company benefits for 2020 grew by about 35% up to $ 452.4 million compared to the previous year.
US Government has banned imported tomato and cotton from Xinjiang, claiming that the two industries have a compelling job. But Xinjiang’s largest shipment to the US in 2020 was a windmill, the South China Morning Post was reported in December, citing Chinese business information.
“The US is a hot gas market, so all retailers are trying to sell there,” said Xizhou Zhou, who heads the IHS Markit’s global market research project.
Wu Gang, founder and chairman of Goldwind, visits southern Xinjiang – a region where the Uyghurs are a major part of the population – at least six times a year in “poverty alleviation work” which includes having meals with families in rural areas for government needs. , according to 2018 published by Goldwind’s company account on China’s WeChat platform and unveiled by the Tech Transparency Project. The tour is part of a series of government programs known as Chinese fanghuiju, the acronym “Visiting, Benefiting People, and Gathering People’s Hearts.”
Wu’s participation in the program is said to be part of Goldwind’s mission to become a “good business citizen”. Along the way, Wu played soccer with local children and created a “cultural center,” the story said.
But the file for fanghuiju the program supports state oversight, according to a 2018 survey and Human Rights Watch. During these visits, which may last for several days, “families should provide health care providers with their own lives and political views, and be educated in politics,” Human Rights Watch found. The group has called on the government to end the program immediately, adding that there is no evidence that families have the power to deny these visits. The program of fanghuiju software it also helps For the government to obtain data on minority categories that help identify detainees, Human Rights Watch has found.
Wu is a former member of China’s parliamentary pump company, National People’s Congress, I am still attending the China Political Forum, a major legal entity.
Goldwind has signed an agreement and the split of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in December – four months after the US banned the organization – to give power to a small town called Beitun.
Goldwind’s massive presence in the market has led to a number of Western businesses. Las Lomas wind farm in south Texas, with 48 wind turbines spread over 36,000 hectares near the Mexican border, and run by French electronics company Engie and selling power to Microsoft. South China Morning Post survey of the shipping history and other credible information showed that Las Lomas acquired wind turbines from Xinjiang Goldwind. Wu says Engie and a great customer of a subsidiary of Goldwind International.
“As far as the status of the Chinese Uyghurs is concerned, Engie has decided to issue a check to those affected by this,” the company responded by answering questions from BuzzFeed News. The company is committed to ensuring that people are forced to use forced labor, he added.
Monitoring of Apple’s performance in China has grown in recent months. More was reported in May that it is two human rights groups found seven Apple retailers connected to forced programs. At least five of them “received thousands of Uyghurs and a handful of employees at other Apple companies or corporations,” said the book, adding that another Apple retailer runs a factory near the Xinjiang construction site.
“We urge Apple CEO Tim Cook to step away from Chinese retailers in Xinjiang who are being forced into forced labor,” Senators Jeff Merkley and Rep. James P. McGovern, a substitute for the DRM-Executive Commission in China, told BuzzFeed News in “We also ask Apple to integrate with US Customs and Border Protection on their Chinese machines to ensure that no Apple shipping is forced. There must be a response. cohesive, strong, and global in what is happening in Xinjiang. “
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