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Tesla opens showroom in Xinjiang Uyghur region despite widespread reports of human rights violations

Musk's electric automotive company opened a new showroom in the deeply troubled Xinjiang, China on the back of record vehicle deliveries.

TJ Denzer

January 4, 2022 7:10 AM

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As Tesla came into 2022, the company has seen a strong start to its year with record vehicle deliveries and a huge boost to its market value, but it’s made a tremendously questionable decision on top of that. Namely, Tesla has recently opened a new vehicle showroom in Xinjiang, China, which is a hotspot for allegations of human rights violations and genocide of Uighur Muslims in the region.

Tesla’s move into Xinjiang was officialized by the company on its Weibo social media account on December 31, 2021, as originally reported by the Wall Street Journal. On that date, Tesla released several posts relating to the opening of the new location, roughly translated by CNBC.

Another post reads as follows:

This comes on the back of Tesla setting a record of deliveries in it 2021 Q4, moving a total of around 308,600 vehicles worldwide and adding $144 billion to its market value, as reported by Bloomberg.

Nonetheless, Tesla’s move into Xinjiang has been seen as problematic and questionable by many critics around the world. That includes U.S. politicians who have proposed legislation to limit imports from the Xinjiang region amid the allegations of genocide, oppression, and even sterilization of Uighur Muslims at the hands of the Chinese government and military. Even just last year, the Chinese U.S. Embassy Twitter was suspended for tweets that “dehumanized” Uighur Muslims while defending the Chinese government’s treatment of the people.

With Elon Musk’s company seeking to gain ground in China, it may come at a cost of public sentiment around the world as the Xinjiang Tesla showroom moves into operation. Stay tuned as we continue to follow this story.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.