It appears German and Chinese automakers are the biggest offenders, where companies like Subaru are actively trying to remove it from their supply chains: https://m.subaru.ca/forced-and-child-labour-report
On January 11, Lear sent letters to BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and VW AG informing them of the banned components. Despite that notification, in April 2024, after the committee explicitly asked both companies whether they ever “directly or indirectly sourced parts from JWD,” Jaguar Land Rover claimed to be unaware of its links to the manufacturer listed on the UFLPA Entity List, and BMW informed the committee that JWD was not on their “supplier list.” However, after repeated questions from the committee, BMW disclosed that at least 8,000 Mini Cooper cars containing JWD components had been shipped to the United States.
I’m not at all suprised at BMW being shady in that way but VW… well yes none of your links actually support lumping them into that category.
VW does happen to have a plant in Xinyang unconnected to human right abuses but seems to be mulling getting rid of it. Long story short the Chinese are going to actively avoid dragging VW into any shady stuff, VW’s whole presence in China is already very unpopular with the shop floor council because China is even more hostile to unions than the US. If VW catches the CCP working against VW guaranteeing its own labour standards in China then they’re just plainly going to leave, and with them all that technology transfer.
…and in case anyone is wondering yes the shop floor council absolutely does have the power to pull VW out of China.
And, like many automakers (but not all) they have ties to forced labor:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/business/economy/senate-bmw-volkswagen-jaguar-land-rover-xinjiang.html
It appears German and Chinese automakers are the biggest offenders, where companies like Subaru are actively trying to remove it from their supply chains: https://m.subaru.ca/forced-and-child-labour-report
https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/automakers-shipped-cars-and-parts-made-by-chinese-company-banned-for-forced-labor-to-the-united-states-car-companies-are-failing-to-police-their-supply-chains-for-chinese-components-made-with-forced-labor-finance-committee-majority-staff-investigation-finds
I’m not at all suprised at BMW being shady in that way but VW… well yes none of your links actually support lumping them into that category.
VW does happen to have a plant in Xinyang unconnected to human right abuses but seems to be mulling getting rid of it. Long story short the Chinese are going to actively avoid dragging VW into any shady stuff, VW’s whole presence in China is already very unpopular with the shop floor council because China is even more hostile to unions than the US. If VW catches the CCP working against VW guaranteeing its own labour standards in China then they’re just plainly going to leave, and with them all that technology transfer.
…and in case anyone is wondering yes the shop floor council absolutely does have the power to pull VW out of China.