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Many of the world’s biggest carmakers are buying aluminium produced by victims of forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region, according to a new report that details how the supply chains of multinational companies could be implicated in Beijing’s long-running campaign of repression.
A report published on Thursday by Human Rights Watch shows that nearly 10 per cent of the world’s aluminium supply comes from Xinjiang, following a sixfold increase of production in the north-west Chinese region since 2010. Carmakers are the biggest industrial users of the metal.
Researchers also found that the Xinjiang aluminium industry relied on workers in state-backed labour transfer programmes, making domestic automotive production in China — the world’s biggest car market — highly exposed to possible human rights abuses.
More than 1mn Uyghur and other minority Muslims have been detained in internment camps or subjected to other abuses in Xinjiang over the past decade, according to rights groups.
Chinese officials say the labour transfer programmes help alleviate poverty and address underlying causes of separatism and terrorism by giving residents productive employment. More than 3mn transfers were made annually in 2021 and 2022, according to government data.
Jim Wormington, who led the Human Rights Watch research, said “the reality is that the whole mechanism of labour transfer” is deployed for increased coercion and control by the state.
“They don’t have a choice but to participate,” he added. “Once they’re moved, they’re in places where their movement is restricted. They are not able to freely leave employment.” Wormington added that victims of forced labour transfer were subjected to “mandatory ideological . . . indoctrination”.
Xinjiang’s aluminium industry has boomed in recent years as Beijing pushes smelters, whose biggest cost is energy, to move closer to the region’s supplies of cheap coal power. The US only has four primary aluminium smelters left in operation after the curtailment of one facility last week due to high energy costs.
The researchers noted that aluminium from Xinjiang was mostly bought and sold by Chinese trading companies, often obscuring the source of the metal and enabling producers and their customers to avoid greater scrutiny.
Human Rights Watch approached carmakers with large Chinese factories including General Motors, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and BYD, the Chinese group that is the world’s biggest EV maker.
In response, the report said, Volkswagen and GM sought to minimise their responsibility for supply chain oversight. Tesla said it had mapped its supply chain and “will not knowingly accept products or services from suppliers that include forced labour or human trafficking” but did not specify how much of the aluminium it used was sourced from Xinjiang. Toyota and BYD did not respond.
In a response to the Financial Times, Toyota said it would closely review the findings of the Human Rights Watch report. “Toyota’s core value of respect for people permeates all that we do,” the company said in a statement. “We expect our suppliers to follow our lead to respect and not infringe upon human rights.”
Volkswagen, which has faced criticism over a plant run by its joint venture in Xinjiang, said its direct suppliers must commit to a code of conduct that “takes a firm stand against forced labour”.
GM said in a statement that it “recognises the importance of responsible sourcing practices” and is committed to working with its partners to “evaluate and address any potential violation in our supply chain”.
Tesla and BYD did not respond to FT requests for comment.
Beijing has long faced international criticism over its treatment of Xinjiang’s Uyghur population, which numbers about 12mn. In a landmark report in 2022, the UN’s top human rights body said China’s actions could constitute “crimes against humanity”. The Chinese government has denied the allegations as a “fabricated lie”.
The Human Rights Watch report highlights how Beijing’s repression in Xinjiang continues to be an acute point of friction between Chinese President Xi Jinping’s administration and western governments.
Trade tensions are rising between China and the EU, which is negotiating new laws banning the import or export of any product linked to forced labour. An EU investigation into Chinese electric vehicle subsidies could also lead to higher tariffs for Chinese imports.
While the US has established the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, critics say stricter reporting and enforcement is needed because opaque supply chains allow companies to evade their responsibility to avoid forced labour.
Additional reporting by David Keohane in Tokyo, Patricia Nilsson in Frankfurt and Peter Campbell in London
