Volkswagen to exit China's Xinjiang, sell factory – DW – 11/27/2024
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German car giant VW said that it would sell its factory and test track in Xinjiang for "economic reasons." China has been accused of using forced labor from ethnic Uyghurs in the region.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5165249

German automaker Volkswagen (VW) on Wednesday announced it would sell its operations in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

China has been accused of numerous human rights abuses in the region, including reeducation camps and forced labor targeting Uyghurs and other minority groups.

[…]

The Uyghur people are a Turkic-speaking and predominantly Muslim ethnic group that inhabit Xinjiang.

The region is also home to a smaller minority of ethnic Kazakh and Kyrgyz.

Human rights organizations have accused China of holding over a million people, mostly Uyghurs, in “reeducation camps,” and making use of forced labor from detainees.

Last year, several activist groups filed a complaint in Paris targeting French and US companies, accusing them of being complicit in crimes against humanity in Xinjiang as a result of using subcontractors in China.

  • DdCno1@beehaw.org
    3·
    13 days ago

    It’s also worth noting that the German state of Lower Saxony is holding a significant portion of the group’s shares (11.8% - but they have 20% of voting rights, granting them a blocking minority). This means that anything the company is doing is always under additional public scrutiny, at least within Germany.