NEW evidence directly implicates Volkswagen in forced labor: The SAIC-VW test track in Turpan was built using transferred "Uyghur laborers" in military drill uniforms (see photo). The VW project subjected them to indoctrination, biometric data collection, assimilation & surveillance. Thread:

Germany's @handelsblatt has this as their front page story, based on my research findings & analysis: https://t.co/xXPpaGH3k8.

The SAIC-VW test track in the Uyghur region of Turpan was built by the China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC)'s Fourth Bureau between 2015-2019.

The track's construction took place under the oversight of the so-called Xinjiang Test Track Project, a joint entity of SAIC-VW and CREC. This entity not only employed transferred Uyghur laborers through so-called "poverty alleviation" projects, but also actively participated in government work teams monitoring Uyghur families, in arranging and hosting assimilatory “ethnic unity” activities, exhorting Uyghur children to diligently study Chinese, and in facilitating the transfer of Uyghur surplus laborers to state-arranged workplaces.

CREC and Xinjiang Test Track Project (XTTP) reports state openly that the Xinjiang Test Track Project employed transferred Uyghur surplus laborers during the peak of the mass internments in 2017 and 2018.

Chinese media websites referencing CREC published photos showing Uyghur laborers employed by the project in their military drill uniforms together with the characteristic red flowers that are a typical feature of the most coercive labor transfers (the state uses military drilling to boost the discipline and obedience of transferred Uyghur workers).

The photo caption states: “The SAIC Volkswagen and CREC 4th Bureau Xinjiang Test Track Project jointly recruits Uyghur and other ethnic minority workers to work in the project.”

A XTTP report from September 2018 outlines how the project employed Uyghur workers from Hotan and southern Xinjiang starting in 2017. Specifically, these workers were "transferred rural surplus laborers" (富裕劳动力) that were sent to work for CREC as part of Xinjiang's 2017 labor transfer plan (this likely refers to the especially coercive 2017-2019 plan under infamous Xinjiang party secretary Chen Quanguo to transfer over 100,000 Uyghurs from poor backgrounds). The XTTP report cites the propaganda testimony of one Uyghur worker, a "star employee" who speaks fluent Chinese and was therefore appointed as monitor and supervisor for the other Uyghur workers.

In May 2017, right when the mass internments started, the XTTP drastically intensified the surveillance and supervision of employees, using early pre-shift "speeches" to strengthen their ideological awareness. The project collected iris scans of employees and passed their information to the security services. It established close cooperations with local village work teams to increase surveillance efforts.

In May 2018, the XTTP provided "targeted assistance" to 130 poor Uyghur households in Turpan, involving the transfer of rural surplus laborers through "poverty alleviation models," so that Uyghurs could "take off their poverty hats". These "targeted poverty alleviation" efforts resulted in a "strong atmosphere" of "national unity," winning "unanimous praise from the local government".

XTTP staff also participated in "ethic unity" and other activities in Uyghur schools, guiding Uyghur children to "diligently study bilingualism" (a euphemism for Chinese).

In 2019, the XTTP ceased to exist and the test track is now managed by the SAIC-VW Test Center (上汽大众（吐鲁番）试验中心). This entity provides a range of services, including vehicle maintenance, which are at risk of Uyghur forced labor, not to mention to continued maintenance of the track, which involves low-skilled labor that especially in Uyghur regions is routinely performed by transferred Uyghur surplus laborers or Uyghurs released from re-education camps.

These findings are worse than those I had uncovered for BASF's Markor Chemical joint venture partner, because they implicate a Volkswagen-controlled entity not only in activities aiding state atrocities, but also in subjecting its own staff to forced labor, assimilation, surveillance and indoctrination.

Handelsblatt story by @Dana_Heide.

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