House Lawmakers Are Latest To Criticize Tesla For Opening Showroom In China’s Xinjiang Region

Topline

Two House Democrats on Wednesday accused Tesla of enabling “gross human rights violations” by opening a car showroom in China’s Xinjiang region, an area where widely reported human rights abuses against Uyghurs have provoked international outrage.

Key Facts

In a letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) — who chair the House Ways and Means Committee’s oversight and trade subcommittees, respectively — demanded that Tesla confirm by February 2 that it is “not contributing to or financially benefiting from the forced labor practices rampant in the region.”

Pascrell and Blumenauer asked about Tesla’s financial relationships with other companies connected to Xinjiang, in order to assess whether Tesla has complied with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a new law that effectively bans most imports from Xinjiang by assuming all goods produced in the region are made with forced labor unless established otherwise.

The two lawmakers also asked whether Tesla — which operates several other showrooms and a factory in mainland China — plans to expand into other regions of China.

Pascrell and Blumenauer joined other congressional critics such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who accused Tesla of “helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up genocide and slave labor” in the region in an early January tweet.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing, a nonprofit, described Tesla’s showroom opening as “especially brazen” earlier this month.

Ibrahim Hooper, national communication director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, urged Tesla on January 3 to close the showroom and “cease what amounts to economic support for genocide” against the region’s mostly-Muslim Uyghur population.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment on Tesla earlier this month, but said the private sector should oppose human rights abuses and genocide in Xinjiang.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Key Background

Tesla opened a showroom in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, on December 31, announcing the company would help “launch Xinjiang on its electric journey.” In January 2021, the U.S. State Department declared that the Chinese government is committing an ongoing genocide against members of the Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang, as well as perpetrating other abuses such as forced labor, forced sterilization and the arbitrary confinement of over 1 million civilians. China has vehemently denied these claims. The United States has responded by sanctioning and blacklisting some Chinese companies, and last month, President Joe Biden signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, aimed at preventing goods made with forced labor in the region from entering the U.S. market. Though goods made with forced labor were already banned in the United States, the act established an assumption that all goods made in Xinjiang were made with forced labor unless certified otherwise by Customs and Border Protection.

Crucial Quote

“Weeks after [Chinese Communist Party] General Secretary Xi Jinping all but declared himself dictator for life and the CCP politburo standing committee tightened its totalitarian grip over virtually every sector, American business cannot further empower the gross human rights violations of the CCP,” Pascrell and Blumenauer wrote to Musk.

Tangent

Tesla products have proven popular in mainland China. The company raised the price of some vehicles repeatedly during late 2021 in order to reduce demand amidst a production shortage, South China Morning Post reported.

Further Reading

“U.S. lawmakers call Tesla expansion in Xinjiang ‘misguided’” (Reuters)

“Biden Signs The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Into Law” (Forbes)