Chinese experts dismissed the UK's unfounded accusations of "forced labor" in China's solar supply chain — reportedly triggered by a British energy firm's purchases from Chinese suppliers — as an ideologically driven technical barrier, rooted in concerns over the strong competitiveness of Chinese products in the UK market.
According to BBC's report, the first 11 schools in England to install what the government described as "Great British Energy solar panels GB Energy" bought them from Chinese firms, Aiko and Longi.
The government said the scheme was "the first major project for Great British Energy - a company owned by the British people, for the British people."
While Labour MP Sarah Champion said GB Energy should be buying solar panels from companies in the UK rather than China, where there have been allegations of forced labor in supply chains.
Champion even went so far as to make noise that "it's taxpayers' money and we should not be supporting slave labor with that money. And wherever possible, we should be supporting good working practices and buy British if we can."
Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that such a pretext underscores the UK's anxiety over the strong competitiveness of Chinese products in its market. At its core, it constitutes an ideologically motivated technical barrier that lacks factual basis and is entirely unjustified, Zhou told the Global Times on Sunday.
"China's green products remain globally competitive in terms of efficiency, quality and affordability. If the UK is committed to meeting its climate goals and accelerating its energy transition, it should actively pursue cooperation with Chinese enterprises — especially amid the current complexities of global trade and supply chains," Zhou said.
Zhou condemned the claim as a mindless echo of earlier misguided decisions made by the US government based on flawed assumptions.
UK's accusation of "forced labor" in China is, at its core, an attempt to tarnish China's international image, hinder its development and align with US' strategy of containing China, Zhang Jian, a vice president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Sunday, slamming that these claims disregard facts and are rooted in clear political bias.
In April, Reuters cited the UK energy department as saying that the newly established state-owned company, Great British Energy, would be required to avoid using solar panels allegedly linked to forced labor in China.
Research from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK further claims that so-called forced labor involving Uygurs in China is used in the production of polysilicon, a key component in solar panels.
The Chinese side has repeatedly stated clearly that the so-called use of forced labor in Xinjiang is a complete lie and a smear campaign concocted by some anti-China organizations.
With reliable supply capacity and systemic competitive advantages, China is well positioned to offer sustainable solutions that can help UK consumers reduce costs, enhance infrastructure quality and broaden the deployment and application of green energy, according to Zhou. He said that such collaboration would not only benefit the UK, but also provide a valuable reference for other European countries.
Zhang said that China's green product exports have made substantial contributions to Europe's green transition, economic growth and improvements in public well-being. "If the UK is truly guided by its national interests and the welfare of its people, it should abandon prejudice and baseless assumptions and engage with China in a rational and pragmatic manner."
Only by returning to such a constructive mindset can China-UK relations,particularly in the economic and trade spheres, advance further, ultimately serving UK's own economic development, green transformation and public welfare, Zhang said.
