In 2021, various institutions produced studies exposing evidence of forced labor in the Xinjiang province of China, a key production site for the crucial solar energy resource polysilicon. These investigations have sparked action from other state and corporate actors. The United States has moved to limit the import of products from the region, and solar corporations are diversifying their supply chains to avoid complicity in soliciting forced labor.

Problem solved? Not quite. A recent report from researchers at Sheffield Hallam University reveals that global solar companies are becoming less transparent about where they source their products. The report shows that while the region has accounted for less of the global share of polysilicon production on paper since 2021, companies are also now disclosing fewer details about their supply chains.

Companies from the United States, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and South Korea, among others, continue to openly employ supply chain lines suspected of employing forced labor. They are also working to bypass US-China trade barriers by trading through subcontractors. Though Chinese imports to the United States have dropped by 24 percent since last year, many of these imports have simply been rerouted through other countries like Mexico.