Volkswagen to Sell Assembly Plant in Xinjiang Amid Mounting Pressure

Volkswagen said on Wednesday it would sell its operations in China’s far-western Xinjiang region, citing its need to maintain business competitiveness and emphasizing that the company is primarily geared toward manufacturing traditional gas-powered cars, a focus increasingly out of step with China’s rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs).
Volkswagen had a joint venture assembly plant in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang—where the Chinese communist regime has been accused of committing massive human rights violations—in addition to a test track in the region.
The automaker said competitive pressure has been growing as the Chinese market’s demand for EVs continues to surge. In July and August, for example, half of all vehicles sold in China were either new EVs or plug-in hybrids, industry data show.
“In this context, existing production capacity for internal combustion vehicles will be gradually reduced in the coming years,” the company said in the Nov. 27 statement, noting that many of its Chinese sites are being, or have already been, converted to produce EVs, based on customer demand. “Alternative economic solutions will be examined in individual cases. This also applies to the joint venture site in Urumqi.”
Volkswagen and SAIC built the assembly plant in Urumqi in 2012 to make affordable cars for China’s less developed inland areas. However, as international criticism mounted over the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) actions in Xinjiang—including the construction of a sprawling surveillance network and the detention of more than 1 million Uyghurs in so-called “reeducation” camps—Volkswagen faced increasing pressure to explain its operations there.
Volkswagen has long maintained that it’s unaware of any use of forced labor at its facilities in Xinjiang. In December 2023, the company told investors that its internal audit found “no indications of any use of forced labor or forced laborers among the employees” at the Urumqi complex.
Shareholders, human rights advocates, and bipartisan members of U.S. Congress have since called for Volkswagen to exit Xinjiang.
“Volkswagen should not seek to brush off or minimize evidence of Uyghur forced labor within its supply chain when the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act explicitly bans the importation into the United States of any products, regardless of size, made in-whole or in-part with such forced labor,” the lawmakers wrote.
“For companies still profiting from these abuses, this serves as a stark reminder: No brand can ignore human rights violations without jeopardizing its reputation and ethical standing,” IPAC founder and executive director Luke de Pulford told The Epoch Times.
“It’s time for others to follow suit or face the consequences.”
“BASF has no indication that employees of the two joint ventures in Korla were involved in human rights violations,” the German company said at the time.