china continues to ignore criticisms of
its vast network of detention camps and
prisons
in the western xinjiang region human
rights groups have increasingly put the
spotlight
on the western companies that are
investing there one of the biggest
is germany's volkswagen urumqi the
capital of china's western xinjiang
region
home to uighurs and other minorities
this is one of the most heavily policed
regions in the world
china's repressive policies against
ethnic minorities
have been called a genocide by some
urumqi is also home to german car maker
volkswagen's most controversial
investment
bw is the only international car maker
to have a plant in the
which is still a region of more than
ever we made the decision to build this
factory more than 10 years ago
it was a decision made solely for
economic reasons
there was no political motivation the
fact that it is now in a politically and
socially sensitive environment worries
us
china has covered the region with a
massive system of prisons internment
centers
and re-education camps australia's aspe
institute
has documented 380 facilities across the
region
hundreds of thousands possibly millions
have disappeared in these facilities
on a recent visit it is constantly
followed around and stopped from
filming some of the facilities are
official prisons
some are unmarked and some are cynically
designated
as vocational training centers
there are several levels of security
from
high security prisons to just fenced
compounds
in china has spent several months in one
of these so-called vocational schools in
2018.
what they had to learn there had little
to do with professional skills he says
in this camp we had to sing the chinese
anthem and other communist
songs they taught us that china was the
strongest country in the world and we
had to study materials about the 19th
communist party congress
china is portraying the mass detentions
as a means to provide
opportunities on the job market but
there's growing
evidence of forced labor inside the
camps or after release when former
detainees have been forced to sign up
with employment agencies vw says there's
no indication of forced labor in its
operations
we were shifting in loyalty direct we
hire all our employees directly
they send a resume and we have a job
interview and then the hr department and
the operating department make a decision
based on the resume and the impression
they gave
what has happened to them before is
something that is hard for us to know
chinese authorities are aware of the
controversy my minders stay in their car
this time
but they call a factory guard over
vw says it will stick to its investment
but the controversy is likely to remain
economically vw's investment never paid
off
it was planned to build 50 000 cars a
year here but its output is less than
half that