Tesla criticized for showroom in China’s Xinjiang region, Walmart clashes with Beijing
Yahoo Finance's Akiko Fujita details the backlash Tesla is receiving after the EV developer opened a showroom in China's controversial Xinjiang region, the site of the country's suppression of the Uyghur Muslim population.
Video Transcript
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JULIE HYMAN: Well China's Xinjiang Province continues to be at the center of conflict. Both having to do with businesses, with the US government, et cetera. The latest headline is that Tesla has opened a showroom there and making it the target of activists. But it's not the first automaker to open a showroom there. Akiko Fujita has been tracking this for us. And this situation is so interesting. Because like many sort of political issues for lack of a better words, social issues right now, businesses are kind of coming on different sides of it.
AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, you're right Julie. And you can expect to hear a lot more about Xinjiang in the coming weeks here as we count down to the Beijing Olympics. This is a region where the Biden administration has accused the Chinese government of carrying out a genocide against Uyghur Muslims and Turkish Muslim minority groups. And by opening a showroom right in the capital city of Urumqi, Tesla has walked into what has, as you point out, been a public relations nightmare for many Western brands.
The DC based group council on Islamic Relations, American Islamic Relations I should say, is now urging Tesla to close that showroom just weeks after its opening. Saying doing business there amounts to economic support for genocide. Here's specifically what the group has said in a statement released, "No American corporation should be doing business in a region that is the focal point of a campaign of genocide targeting a religious and ethnic minority." Now just to back up a bit, it's worth noting what's been playing out in Xinjiang. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused the Chinese of carrying out a campaign of forced assimilation in Xinjiang against Muslim minorities. There have been reports that have documented a well-coordinated system of mass surveillance, forced labor, stringent birth controls, essentially erasing religious practices, language, and culture from the region.
The administration specifically has said this all amounts to genocide. Last month we saw President Biden sign a bill into law that bans imports of products coming in from Xinjiang unless a company can specifically determine that it wasn't made using forced labor. Now that has put Western brands in a bind. We've heard about Intel as well as Walmart getting backlash over in China after removing products made in Xinjiang to specifically comply with this new law in the US.
Tesla could certainly argue that they don't fall into the camp, because this is a showroom that has opened up. They're not necessarily using forced labor in terms of the employees there. But as this specific group in DC has pointed out, this amounts to as they see it supporting a region and a government that is carrying out a genocide. And certainly you can expect to hear a lot more of that about this over the next few weeks as we count down to the Olympics. And the concerns about human rights abuses happening in China grow louder.
JULIE HYMAN: All right. Akiko Fujita, thank you so much. I appreciate
