> It's their citizens who sacrifice to make solar power cheap enough.

No. Manufacturing labor cost in China is not cheap. In fact since 2012 or so, it is more expensive than in most of Asia. Companies who want cheap labor look elsewhere.

https://www.economist.com/business/2023/02/20/global-firms-a... (Archive link: https://archive.fo/tdhXJ )

China is also the only major economy where wages have increased at the same rate as GDP in the last 40 or so years.

Solar panel construction is very easy to automate, I don’t think labor is a big driver of cost.