US bars imports from 43 companies over forced labor allegations, raising costs for solar-powered Bitcoin miners

The US Department of Homeland Security just dropped 43 Chinese companies onto a trade blacklist tied to forced labor allegations involving Uyghurs, and the fallout extends well beyond geopolitics. The move, announced on July 31, marks the largest single batch addition to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List since the law began enforcement in June 2022. With this expansion, the total number of entities on the list now stands at 187. That’s a 30% jump in a single day. For context, the previous record was the January 2025 batch, which added roughly 37 to 39 entities. What actually happened The UFLPA works like a reverse presumption of innocence for goods. Any imports from companies on the Entity List are assumed to be produced with forced labor unless the importer can prove otherwise with clear and convincing evidence. The 43 newly listed companies span sectors that are deeply embedded in global supply chains: aluminum, apparel, copper, cotton, tomatoes, polysilicon, and mining minerals. One of the named entities is Hunan Aihua Group. Since enforcement kicked off in mid-2022, US Customs and Border Protection has reviewed nearly $3.7 billion in shipments under the...