US activists called on Tesla Inc. to close a new showroom in China’s northwest Xinjiang region, where authorities are accused of abuses against ethnic minorities, mainly Muslims.
Tesla announced on Friday the opening of its dealership in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and on its Chinese social media account it said “Let’s start the all-electric journey in Xinjiang!”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a US organization based in Washington, DC, on Monday asked Tesla and its president, Elon Musk, to close the room and “stop the equivalent of financial support for the genocide.”
Pressure on foreign companies to take a position on Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and other highly political issues has been mounting. The ruling Chinese Communist Party pressures companies to adopt their positions on their advertising and websites. And it has targeted clothing companies and others who express concern over reports of forced labor and other abuses in Xinjiang.
“No American company should do business in a region that is at the center of a genocide campaign against a religious and ethnic minority,” the group’s communications director Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement.
Activists and foreign governments claim that around a million Uighurs and members of other mainly Muslim minorities have been confined in detention camps in Xinjiang. The Chinese authorities reject the accusations and say that job training and training to combat extremism are offered in the camps.
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