Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer media awards in Berlin in 2020. Activists are calling for Tesla to close a new showroom in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, where officials are accused of abusing majority Muslim minorities.
File photo Hannibal Hanschke / AP
hide captions
switch captions
File photo Hannibal Hanschke / AP
Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer media awards in Berlin in 2020. Activists are calling for Tesla to close a new showroom in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, where officials are accused of abusing majority Muslim minorities.
File photo Hannibal Hanschke / AP
BEIJING – American activists are calling on Tesla Inc. closed a new gallery in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, where officials were accused of mistreatment of Muslim minorities.
Tesla on Friday announced the opening of its showroom in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and said on its Chinese social media account: “Let’s start Xinjiang’s all-electric journey !”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an American organization based in Washington, DC, on Monday urged Tesla and its president, Elon Musk, to close showrooms and “stop economic support” for genocide.”
Pressure on foreign companies to take up positions in Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and other political issues is growing. The ruling Communist Party pushes companies to apply its position in advertising and on websites. It attacked clothing and other brands that expressed concern about reports of forced labor and other abuses in Xinjiang.
The group’s communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, said in a statement: “No American corporation should do business in an area that has been the focus of a genocidal campaign targeting a religious and ethnic minority group.” number”.
Activists and foreign governments say about 1 million Uighurs and members of other predominantly Muslim minorities have been detained in detention camps in Xinjiang. Chinese officials deny allegations of abuse and say the camps are for job training and combating extremism.
On Friday, the ruling party’s disciplinary body threatened to boycott Walmart Inc. after some shoppers complained online that they couldn’t find goods from Xinjiang in Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in China.
In December, Intel Corp., the world’s largest computer chip maker, apologized for asking suppliers to avoid sourcing goods from Xinjiang after state media attacked the company and Online comments call for a boycott of their goods.
The United States has banned the import of goods from Xinjiang unless they can be proven not made by forced labor.
China is one of Tesla’s biggest markets. The company’s first factory outside of the United States was opened in Shanghai in 2019.
Other foreign car brands include Volkswagen, General Motors and Nissan Motor Co. has showrooms in Xinjiang operated by the automaker’s Chinese joint venture partners. VW also operates a plant in Urumqi.
