The Shanghai Motor Show opened today with major German car manufacturers unveiling their latest models, although German politicians have called on the auto industry to reduce its dependence on the Chinese market in light of the Communist Party’s authoritarian regime, human rights issues and the potential competitive risks for foreign investors.
Manfred Weber, president of the European Parliament’s largest party group, the People’s Group (EPP), said that China is an institutional rival of the European Union and the Western world, and that its rise also poses a political and economic threat, as seen in the case of Hong Kong.
In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the German-born Weber pointed out that the EU needs to strategically reassess its relations with China and strengthen coordination with the US. China is indeed an interesting market, but it can no longer be as naive as it was in the past.
Reinhard Bütikofer, head of the European Parliament’s delegation on relations with China, noted that European relations with China have been deteriorating since 2015, with the Chinese Communist Party ambassador to Germany at one point threatening to prevent Germans from selling cars in China.
Boreham, who comes from the German Green Party, said China’s rail industry is moving toward technological autonomy, putting European companies such as Siemens and Alstom at a disadvantage in the face of Chinese competitors. The ultimate goal of China’s policy is to crowd out foreigners, and the auto industry could be in a similar situation.
Xinjiang has become synonymous with human rights persecution in the West in recent years due to the persecution of the Uighur minority, and has forced Volkswagen, which has a plant in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi, to repeatedly pledge that it will not employ slave labor at its production sites and in its supply chain in China, due to public pressure.
A visit by German Green Party MEP Viola vonCramon-Taubadel to a Volkswagen plant in Xinjiang in 2012 led to the temporary detention of the local head of Volkswagen for discussing human rights issues with Uighur employees.
Cramon-Taubadel, who is currently a member of the European Parliament, said that FOSS was not able to admit that the decision to invest in Xinjiang was a mistake and was now in a dilemma because “companies that are not openly critical of the Communist Party’s leadership can only make money in China.
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