Politics

Biden Balances Climate Need With Human Rights in Chinese Solar Ban

  • Administration bars import of products from Hoshine Silicon
  • Move seeks to stifle human-rights abuses, not U.S. solar

Photographer: Costfoto/Barcroft Media/Getty Images

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The Biden administration’s narrowly focused ban on Chinese solar products is designed to confront alleged human-rights abuses in the Xinjiang region without stifling the fast-growing use of renewable energy in the U.S.

The order imposed Thursday, which affects the import of silica-based products made by Hoshine Silicon Industry Co., Ltd., represents one of President Joe Biden’s biggest steps yet to counter alleged mistreatment of China’s ethnic Uyghur Muslim minority.