Tesla’s expansion in Xinjiang ‘sets a poor example’, say US lawmakers
The chairmen of two congressional panels on oversight and trade have assailed Tesla’s expansion in China’s far-western Xinjiang region, where mass internment camps have drawn heavy criticism, and asked the electric carmaker about its Chinese product sourcing.
“Your misguided expansion into the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region sets a poor example and further empowers the CCP [Chinese government] at a fraught moment,” Democrats Bill Pascrell and Earl Blumenauer, who head two House of Representatives ways and means subcommittees, wrote in a joint letter to Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.
Tesla made a New Year’s Eve announcement that it opened a showroom in Xinjiang, becoming the latest foreign business caught up in tensions related to the region.
“On the last day of 2021, we meet in Xinjiang. In 2022 let us together launch Xinjiang on its electric journey!” a Weibo post announcement on 31 December read.
Xinjiang has become a significant point of conflict between western governments and China in recent years. UN experts and rights groups estimate that more than 1 million people, mainly Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in camps there.
“We are dismayed that Tesla has reportedly opened a showroom in the province that is at the heart of China’s Uyghur detainment in camps and forced labor in factories,” Pascrell and Blumenauer write in the letter dated 19 January.
The chairmen asked Musk whether Tesla sources any goods made or manufactured in Xinjiang and, if so, to identify them. They also asked whether Tesla had any financial relationships with companies connected to Xinjiang and whether Tesla planned to expand into other regions in China.
The company operates a factory in Shanghai, where it is
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