Beijing called on Thursday to “not be fooled by the lies” relating to human rights abuses in Xinjiang, at a time when the activities of the German automobile giant Volkswagen in this Chinese region are being singled out. The authorities have been imposing draconian measures in the name of anti-terrorism in Xinjiang (northwest China) for more than a decade, after a series of bloody attacks attributed by the government to certain Uighurs.
These measures have tightened from 2017 in this vast border territory of Central Asia. Volkswagen, Europe’s leading manufacturer, has been implicated for years, suspected of using forced labor in a factory opened in 2013 in Urumqi, the largest city in Xinjiang. The group said this week that it was in discussions about the future of its activities in this region, after compromising press revelations concerning an alleged use of forced labor on another site.
Companies must “discern fact from fiction and not be fooled by lies,” said the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement sent to AFP, when asked about Volkswagen. “The alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang are a lie” intended to “create disorder in Xinjiang, denigrate and put pressure on China,” added the press release, without mentioning the German group.
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Western studies, based on interpretations of official Chinese documents, testimonies of alleged victims and statistical extrapolations, accuse the authorities of repression against the Uyghurs, one of the indigenous minorities of Xinjiang. Thus the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a research firm created by the Australian government, or German researcher Adrian Zenz have devoted several reports to Chinese policies in Xinjiang.
These reports accuse Beijing of having arbitrarily interned at least a million people in political re-education “camps”. The authorities, who initially denied the reality of such structures, ended up admitting the existence of “vocational training centers”, intended to keep “trainees” away from radicalization. Since 2019, all are now “graduates” and therefore free in theory, while these facilities have been closed, assures Beijing.
The chemist BASF, one of the largest German groups, threw a wrench in the pond on Friday by announcing that it was accelerating the sale of its stakes in two joint ventures established in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government is accused of repression. Xinjiang, thanks to a marked improvement in security conditions, has sought in recent years to attract foreign investment and increase the number of tourists in this vast territory renowned for its landscapes and heritage.
