German automaker Volkswagen will maintain its factory in the Chinese city of Ürümqi, capital of the Sinkiang autonomous region, despite information on human rights violations in the area, according to a statement.
In a response from the regional government of Lower Saxony to a question from the Los Verdes Party, it was reported that the company “is still betting on the factory in Ürümqi based on the assumption that western China will continue to grow economically in the coming years.”
Thus, it is planned that in addition to the Volkswagen Santana that is already manufactured in Ürümqi from that year on, an SUV model will also be produced. The plant has a capacity for 50,000 vehicles and is being fully exploited.
According to this information, the company has no knowledge of human rights violations in the factory, which Volkswagen manages together with its Chinese partner SAIC. He adds that one in four of the 650 employees belongs to minorities, which corresponds to the percentage of minorities in the population of the city of Ürümqi.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published at the end of November Chinese documents that account for a systematic persecution of the Uyghurs and instructions for the mass internment of this Muslim minority.
K. Tovar
Source: dpa
