WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Luxury electric car giant Tesla Inc (TSLA), recently opened a new location in the Xingjiang province, which has sparked a lot of controversies since the Chinese government has been accused of prosecuting religious minorities in the region.
The company announced the news on December 31 on Weibo, Twitter's Chinese counterpart, which was first noted by the Journal. The news has made headlines especially because it came right on the heel of President Biden announcing to sanction on imports from the province as it is heavily infected with labor camps.
The Chinese leadership is heavily linked with the systematic elimination of Uyghur Muslims, who are religious minorities in the country. US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken said, '[we]?call on the Government?of the People's Republic of China to immediately end genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim?Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.' The post said, 'In 2022, let us together launch Xinjiang on its electric journey! Tesla (heart) Xinjiang.' The company has not commented on the situation. According to Human Rights Watch, China is executing almost 1 million Uyghurs through concentration camps, forced sterilizations, rapes, and other heinous atrocities.
China has labeled the people as terrorists and has claimed the camps as 'reeducation' camps rather than extermination camps. Apart from Tesla, other major tech companies are also finding it difficult to handle the situation as China remains one of the largest markets for a lot of major US-based tech companies.
Tesla's rapid growth is 2021 owes a great deal to the Chinese market and its opening of the new store in Urumqi, the capital of the province has only solidified the importance of China as a market for the company. However, the carmaker is going to get a huge backlash from both national and international human rights activists for the recent development.
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