Florida Senator Marco Rubio took time out from lambasting Democrats and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Twitter to hurl his flaming arrows at China and Volkswagen. Rubio linked to a Reuters article about the European automaker’s relationship with China and the Chinese government’s alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including mass detention camps and forced labor.
Another example of how profits from & dependence on #China leads another multinational like @VW to serve as apologists for an ongoing genocide in #Xinjiang
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 28, 2023
⁰https://t.co/eqbGizQyzh
During a recent visit to its facility in Xinjiang, a VW China executive reported no observable signs of forced labor or human rights violations, triggering new questions about Chinese transparency. AutoNews Europe reports that VW also “denied maintaining the plant was a condition imposed by Beijing to keep producing across China.”
Forced labor isn’t the only crime China is accused of committing in Xinjiang, where the Uyghur population and other Muslim-majority ethnic groups in the region have allegedly been victims of genocide. The United Nations published a report last year that says the Chinese government may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. China denies any abuse.
Rubio doesn’t hesitate to use the word genocide as he rips China and Volkswagen and defends the human rights of the Uyghur who live in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in Northwest China. Rubio believes Uyghurs are being killed.
A strong free market Republican, Rubio took aim at the Volkswagen for putting “profits” above ethics and human rights when it comes to China. Rubio describes what he implied was Volkswagen’s blind eye as: “another example of how profits from & dependence on #China leads another multinational like VW to serve as apologists for an ongoing genocide in #Xinjiang.”
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