Mick Hartley

Steerpike at the Spectator on German tech giant Siemens:

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.’ Well it seems the tech bosses over at German giant Siemens have, unwittingly or not, neglected that iron rule of history, judging by the comments this week of its CEO Roland Busch on China.

For over in Germany, the Green Party are a sounder bunch than their sandal-wearing socialist siblings found in Britain. And Berlin’s recently-elected Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has been urging a tougher stance against the communist regime in Beijing because of human rights violations.

Unsurprisingly though, big business has not always been keen to cooperate, given the abundance of cheap labour found in China. And nowhere is that labour cheaper than in the region of Xinjiang, where Beijing’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims amounts to genocide, in the words of the House of Commons.

Numerous reports point to slave labour being used in the region, involving everything from cotton and textiles to automotives and electronics. One industry in which Xinjiang excels is the global production of solar panels, as it produces about 45 per cent of the world’s supply of the key component, polysilicon. Research by Sheffield Hallam University in May concluded that this material had been obtained under a massive system of coercion.

Unsurprisingly, such revelations have prompted demands for action across the West. Shortly before Christmas, the US Senate passed legislation to ensure that American entities are not funding forced labor among ethnic minorities in the region.

Busch though, is not such a fan of calls to divest from such supply chains on the grounds that — wait for it — an EU ban on forced labour could slow down its green transition which relies on imports of Xinjiang’s solar power panels.

Responding to Baerbock’s views on Friday, the £5.8 million-a-year executive said that mistakes in China ‘cannot be resolved through a confrontational foreign policy,’ adding ‘If export bans are issued, these could mean that we can no longer buy solar cells from China – then the energy transition will come to an end at this point.’

They certainly didn’t put that on a poster at COP26. Busch’s comments are all the more shocking in light of his company’s, er, problematic history. As Siemens’ own website notes:

"In Nazi Germany, rearmament and the wartime economy dominated Siemens’ business activities, too. The company’s activities during this period also included the use of forced labor. Siemens has taken a clear position on this matter – repeatedly, responsibly and clearly."

What a sad irony that so many of the companies which exploited slave labor during the Second World War are seemingly content to do so again.

Another of the German companies that deals in a big way with China, and with Xinjiang, is a certain car manufacturer that was founded by the Nazis in 1937 and used slave labour including concentration camp prisoners in its factories during WW2:

For Volkswagen, which produces Santana sedans and Tharu SUVs in Urumqi, its presence in Xinjiang is political. Economically, the factory in Xinjiang hardly makes sense; parts have to be transported thousands of kilometres from the coastal regions, and instead of the planned 50,000 cars per year, it produces fewer than 20,000. The 2013 factory was a political present to China’s government, which wanted to show its success in the region. Closing the factory today would risk Volkswagen’s entire China business, which brings in billions in profits. Every second VW worldwide is sold in the People’s Republic. Stephan Wöllenstein, the company’s China chief, says that Volkswagen is ‘concerned’ about the situation in Xinjiang, but adds: ‘I don’t think that to steal away from the region would solve the political problems.’

And it's not just cars and solar panels. Textiles too:

German companies are supplying the technical backbone for the vast textile industry in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, where at least half a million members of the persecuted Uighur minority have allegedly been forced to labour in the cotton fields.

Leaked trade figures from the Chinese customs authority underline the extent of Germany’s commercial entanglement in the region despite numerous claims of human rights abuses and “cultural genocide”.

Investigations by researchers and foreign activists have suggested that more than a million of Xinjiang’s mostly Uighur Muslims have been held in detention camps without due legal process. There have been reports of rape, torture, forced sterilisation, the destruction of dozens of mosques and shrines, and “cotton gulags” in which Uighurs are compelled to work in degrading conditions for little or no pay. Xinjiang produces about a fifth of the world’s cotton….

Germany has come under pressure over its trade with Xinjiang. Customs data obtained by the South China Morning Post show that sales of German parts for textile machines to Xinjiang rose thirtyfold over the past three years, to £30 million. No other country sold more than £500,000 worth.