If you’re going to write a politically oriented op-ed about what is going on in the Xinjiang region of China, site of the government’s systemic and horrific persecution of Uyghurs and others, what topic will you find most urgent to discuss: a) this persecution or b) how “green energy” efforts are allegedly faring in the region?
Let’s say that the forum in which you are to articulate your perspective is China Daily, one of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda rags. And let’s say you’re Erik Solheim, former executive director of the United Nations Environmental Programme, former Norwegian Minister of the Environment, author of a previous China Daily article entitled “BRI a recipe for sustainable development,” and current vice president of something called the Green Belt and Road Coalition.
Given the background, the publication, and the kind of person you are, it is all but determined that you will choose the latter subject.
Little red, little green book
In fact, says Solheim in the title of his latest China Daily commentary, the West “should take a leaf from China’s green book” (September 26, 2024). China is now “the indispensable nation in the global fight against climate change…. Embracing collaboration and competition is the most viable strategy for the West to close the gap with the world’s leading supplier of clean technology…. Huge solar plants like the one I saw near Urumqi are wonderful and impressive…. A more balanced and sustainable green future is within our grasp.”
At the National Review website, Jimmy Quinn is not impressed by how impressed Solheim is.
The article made no mention of well-documented evidence that party officials have carried out an extensive mass-detention program targeting ethnic minorities, nor of U.S. government or U.N. findings on the atrocities, which Washington considers genocide.
Instead, Solheim marveled at what he characterized as China’s green-energy advancements. “It was like stepping into a vision of the future—endless stretches of desert now home to the world’s largest single photovoltaic project,” wrote Solheim, also a former Norwegian minister of climate and the environment, of arriving in the Xinjiang city of Urumqi.
The piece described his stop at a wind-energy site. The piece argued that Western fears about China’s overcapacity in green-technology production are overblown and that Europe and the U.S. should “roll out a red carpet” for Chinese firms. Two of the solar-panel companies he mentioned have been linked by researchers to forced-labor abuses.
Perhaps when he penned his musings for China Daily, one of the Party’s propaganda rags, Solheim didn’t know that two of the Chinese solar-panel makers for which he wants the West to roll out the red carpet “have been linked by researchers to forced-labor abuses.” But he doesn’t seem particularly curious about the matter either.
Not fully forthcoming
Quinn says that Solheim was willing to answer several questions about his op-ed and his affiliation with the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. (Example of the answers: Solheim’s “relationship to the Chinese government is exactly the same as when I work with the US government.”) But Solheim “did not respond to a follow-up email asking, a second time, about China’s abuses against Uyghurs.”
Quinn cites a Jamestown Institute study which finds that the China Council for IC on E and D is part of a political-influence operation “targeting foreigners.” Shocker.
He doesn’t really discuss the often fraudulent nature of the green-energy initiatives themselves, including China’s. That’s okay. James Roth has reported on that angle.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: “What’s Red and Green and Washed All Over?”
“Surprisingly, China keeps attending climate meetings and making agreements. This raises some questions.”
