Tesla Asked To Shut Down Xinjiang Showroom Over Human Rights Abuses

Advocates nationwide are calling on Tesla to shut down its newly opened showroom in Xinjiang, China, where government officials are charged with committing human rights abuses against Muslim ethnic minorities.

The electric carmaker has not responded to the request after it announced the showroom’s opening in Xinjiang’s regional capital, Urumqi, on its official Weibo account last Friday.

“On the last day of 2021, we meet in Xinjiang,” Tesla said in its official Weibo post on Friday. “In 2022 let us together launch Xinjiang on its electric journey!”

The U.S. has classified China’s treatment of ethnic Uyghurs as genocide. Many other countries, along with the U.S., intend to institute a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February in protest, Reuters reports.

Among the organizations that have criticized Tesla is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which took to Twitter to express its disapproval.

“Elon Musk must close Tesla’s Xinjiang showroom,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations said via a tweet, referring to Tesla's CEO.

The council's communications director Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement that “no American corporation should be doing business in a region that is the focal point of a campaign of genocide targeting a religious and ethnic minority.”

The Associated Press reports that various foreign governments say around 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have been harshly restricted to detention camps in Xinjiang. China has repeatedly denied the allegations of forced labor and abuse.