A large body of evidence released Tuesday, including company documents, contractor websites and photos of the work in question, shows that a Volkswagen test truck built in Turpan, East Turkestan, was built using Uyghur slaves. It shows that
East Turkestan is a region located west of China and north of Afghanistan that has been occupied by the Chinese Communist Party since 1949. China administers this region as the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” (XUAR). Under current dictator Xi Jinping, the Communist Party has launched a genocidal campaign against the region’s Uighur population and other Turkic minorities living there, most blatantly imprisoning up to 3 million people in concentration camps. and instigated the mass sterilization of all mankind. A village of women of childbearing age.
Genocide includes elements of slavery. The Chinese government denies committing genocide and calls the concentration camps “vocational and educational training” facilities. Survivors of the camp were sent from the cotton fields of East Turkestan. high tech factory According to Beijing, when they “graduate” from “vocational training and educational training”, it will take place across the country.
In reality, concentration camp prisoners are sold online in “increments of 50 to 100 people” to companies of their choice, Sky News reported. revealed In 2021.
Reports from German newspapers on Tuesday handelsblatthas teamed up with renowned human rights researcher Adrian Zenz to allege that Volkswagen is involved in Uyghur slave labor through the construction of a test track for its cars built in collaboration with Chinese car company SAIC. . The Turpan line was built between 2015 and 2019 by a regime-linked Chinese company and its subsidiary, the slave-run Xinjiang Experimental Line Project, Zenz said.
New evidence that Volkswagen is directly involved in forced labor: SAIC-VW test track in Turpan city was built using deported “Uyghur workers” dressed in military training uniforms. (See photo). The VW Project subjected them to indoctrination, biometric data collection, and assimilation. pic.twitter.com/KtFVJVMZeH
— Adrian Zenz (@adrianzenz) February 14, 2024
“The group not only employed Uyghur migrant workers through so-called “poverty alleviation” projects, but also actively participated in government work teams monitoring Uyghur families and promoted assimilative “ethnic reunification.” ” activities to encourage Uyghur children,” Zenz said.study Chinese diligently [Mandarin]and to facilitate the transfer of surplus Uyghur workers to state-arranged jobs. ”
The “surplus workers” were slaves in military drill uniforms, as evidenced by photographs published in Chinese regime propaganda promoting the construction of test tracks. China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC), the parent company of the Xinjiang Test Line Project, said, “Uyghur workers hired for this project are shown wearing training uniforms and the most distinctive red flower is visible in the photograph.” He released a photo of himself. It’s forced labor migration,” Zenz reported.
Thursday, April 22, 2021, at SAIC Volkswagen’s factory on the outskirts of Urumqi, in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. (Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press)
“The CREC and Xinjiang Test Track Project (XTTP) report openly states that the Xinjiang Test Track Project employed displaced Uighur surplus workers during the peak of mass internment in 2017 and 2018. “There are,” Zenz added.
Although the “Xinjiang Test Line Project” no longer exists, the organization in charge of the test line also makes use of “surplus labor,” that is, “low-skilled labor that is routinely performed especially in the Uyghur region” by Uyghur slaves. It is reported that he is doing so.
“Organizations under Volkswagen’s control not only engage in activities that support state atrocities, but also subject their own employees to forced labor, assimilation, surveillance and indoctrination,” Zenz concluded. I attached it.
Volkswagen has maintained operations in East Turkestan for years, but has faced increasing criticism for apparently doing little to ensure its operations do not profit from genocide or slave labor. ing. In May, anti-communist demonstrators disrupted Volkswagen’s shareholder meeting and threw a cake at the company’s chairman in protest of its ties to Xinjiang.
A demonstrator throws a cake at Volkswagen’s chairman during a shareholder meeting. Activists were protesting at the carmaker’s controversial factory in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.#East Turkestan #Uighur #Uyghur Genocide #UighurMuslim #Stand4Uighur #China 🇳 #CCPChina pic.twitter.com/hilR6eIos2
— AlimcanTurdi (@AlimcanTurdi) May 10, 2023
The German company refused to relocate, but reports on Tuesday suggested it would in the aftermath of the incident. handelsblatt According to reports, it may be reconsidered.
After publication of the first report, handelsblatt Volkswagen has issued an update saying it is under “tremendous pressure” to address the bomb report. A company spokesperson claimed on Tuesday that “we are currently intensively considering various scenarios” in which the German company sells its stake in the joint project to its Chinese partner SAIC and withdraws from East Turkestan. He did not deny the possibility.Bloomberg as well report Volkswagen says it is “reviewing its activities in Xinjiang.”
At least one German investment fund, Union Investment; explained Volkswagen is “uninvestable” and as long as it is tied to Uyghur slave labor, it could lead to an exodus of investors.
Uyghur advocacy groups also continue to pressure Volkswagen to stop participating in activities that enable genocide, the World Uyghur Congress said. issued Tuesday’s statement strongly urges Volkswagen to “withdraw from East Turkestan.”
“This is the only way to ensure that Volkswagen is not complicit in the Chinese government’s national forced labor program,” the group claimed. “We urge Volkswagen to no longer hide from the truth. Transparent, honest action and a thorough review of its corporate policies are long overdue.”
“The recent revelations about Volkswagen’s involvement in Uyghur forced labor should be a turning point for VW to finally withdraw from East Turkestan,” said Dolkun Aissa, president of the group. “VW has long avoided responsibility for its complicity in human rights violations against the Uighur people.”
