22
FEB
2024
Among other things, the accusation that Uyghurs are subjected to forced labor in Xinjiang was investigated, among others, by the sinologist Björn Alpermann from the University of Würzburg. Alpermann, who cannot be considered a political partisan of the Chinese government, concludes in an extremely detailed analysis that "direct coercion or even 'slave work'" could be proven "not conclusively". 1] Although there are also "programs [...] for poverty eradication" in Xinjiang, within the framework of which Uyghurs have to work in industry or in the service sector; there one can "at least assume strong mobilization pressure". However, the long-term unemployed may also be obliged to work in Germany; the fact that non-profit activities are remunerated lower in such cases than activities on the "regular labor market" is "also common in democratic social states," says Alpermann. He explicitly warns against "taking the companies socially associated with Xinjiang into liability" or even "putting the whole region under an embargo": In my opinion, this "goes too far and harms the people living there rather than that it helps them." 2]
However, this is exactly the case in the United States. The Biden administration has on the 1st June 2022, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) came into force, which in principle prohibits the import into the USA of products that were completely or only partially manufactured in Xinjiang. Exceptions are at best possible if it can be proven "clearly and convincingly" that not at any point in the supply chain was forced labored to produce the products. 3] This is hardly possible in everyday life, especially under the given political conditions. By mid-April last year alone, US customs had seized goods worth 961 million US dollars because they actually or allegedly contained components from Xinjiang. This only affected in the least part direct imports from the People's Republic; while goods imported from there were fixed worth 80 million US dollars, these were also goods worth 370 million US dollars from Vietnam and goods worth 461 million US dollars from Malaysia. 4] In fact, the UFLPA aims to force all companies worldwide that export their products to the USA to dispense with goods including raw materials from Xinjiang and thus economically isolate the area.
The UFLPA now also meets the Volkswagen Group. Currently, thousands of vehicles of the Audi, Porsche and Bentley brands have been fixed in US ports. The reason is that the US authorities claim that a single component contained in them was manufactured in Xinjiang. 5] According to Volkswagen, this is a small part of the control unit. The group now wants to replace it, but can only deliver its vehicles with a severe delay. In fact, Washington can force the German group not to use any components from Xinjiang in the production of its export models and to require its suppliers to no longer process raw materials from the region.
In addition to the problems with export to the United States, the EU is now planning a law on the model of the UFLPA. The EU Commission has already on the 14th September 2022 proposed a corresponding regulation, which without exception affects all imports into the Member States. The European Parliament further tightened the regulation in October 2023 and thus entered into the final discussions with the Commission and the European Council. 6] Accordingly, a list is to be drawn up on which entire sectors of regions suspected of actual or allegedly forced labor are listed. 7] For all products imported from there, the burden of proof should be reversed - according to the US model. Companies would then have to prove beyond doubt that the production of the goods was one hundred percent without the use of forced labor. As in the case of the UFLPA, this is hardly possible in practice.
Meanwhile, the withdrawal of German corporations from Xinjiang seems to have begun. On the 9th In February, BASF announced that the exit from two joint ventures based in Xinjiang had already been initiated in the fourth quarter of 2023. 8] The group stated that it is thus drawing the consequences of the fact that there is global overcapacity. However, observers doubt the motive. With a total of around 120 employees, however, the size and importance of the factories were limited. The Volkswagen Group is now also examining whether it will maintain its Urumqi location in Xinjiang. However, according to its own information, this now only has almost 200 employees, so it would probably be replaceable without unjustifiable effort.[ 9]
Of course, it has long been clear that forces close to the US government want to transfer the campaign to break off economic relations with Xinjiang into a campaign to break all economic relations with China. This is evidenced by statements by Adrian Zenz, an activist of the anti-communist Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), who began his career at the Evangelical Academy for World Mission in Korntal near Stuttgart and is now promoted in Washington as an alleged China expert. 10] Zenz recently said that the supply chains in China are "so non-transparent" that they are hard to see through. However, if you can no longer distinguish whether a concrete product comes from Xinjiang or from another Chinese region, "then you may have to repel the entire country." 11] This would be the decoupling that the former and possibly future US President Donald Trump is striving for.
[1], [2] Björn Alpermann: Xinjiang. China and the Uighurs. Würzburg 2021.
[3] USA - Fight against forced labor. ihk.de 04.05.2023.
[4] Andrea Day, Chris DiLella: Since June, Feds have seized nearly $1 billion in goods tied to forced labor. cnbc.com 17.04.2023.
[5] Christina Kunkel, Florian Müller: Traffic jam in the harbor. Süddeutsche Zeitung 16.02.2024.
[6] Proposal for a ban on goods made using forced labour. europarl.europa.eu 24.11.2023.
[7] Import ban on goods from forced labor. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 16.10.2023.
[8] BASF will sell shares in its two joint ventures in Korla, China. basf.com 09.02.2024.
[9] VW examines the future of the plant in Xinjiang. tagesschau.de 14.02.2024.
[10] Christian Geinitz: China enlightener led by God. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 17.02.2024.
[11] Nikolaus J. Kurmayer: Solar PV industry caught up in China forced-labour controversy. euractiv.com 16.02.2024.