Chinese battery maker CATL hit back at US Republican lawmakers for “groundless and completely false” accusations of having connections to forced Uyghur labour.
Members of Congress sent two letters on 5 June to Robert Silvers, Under Secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security, urging him to place CATL and Gotion High Tech on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List. This would ban their products from the US.
The letters allege use of forced labour and extensive business links between the battery companies and others in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). They claimed the evidence presented “illustrate a broader pattern” through which entities like CATL seeking access to the US market obscure supply chain links. Signatories included Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, the new chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
CATL said in a statement the letter is inaccurate and misleading. “With some suppliers quoted in the letter, business relations ceased long ago. With other suppliers, business relations have been conducted with different subsidiaries and with absolutely no connection to forced labour or anything that violates US applicable laws and regulations. With still others, we have never procured any products from them and the cited information is simply wrong and misguided,” it said.
It added that it is in strict compliance with all US-applicable laws and regulations.
In the letter to Gotion, the lawmakers alleged: multiple companies in Gotion’s direct supply chain manufacture or process materials in the XUAR, engage in state-sponsored Uyghur labour transfer programmes or are closely linked to forced labour.
Gotion has been asked to respond.
