[2022-06-18] WSJ - 工会领导人表示,大众汽车应该重新考虑在中国的存在
BUSINESS Volkswagen Should Rethink China Presence, Says Union Leader Adding to pressure on VW, union says no question of human-rights abuses in Xinjiang 商业 工会领导人表示,大众汽车应该重新考虑在中国的存在 对大众施加压力,工会表示毫无疑问新疆有侵犯人权的问题
By William Boston June 17, 2022, 8:47 am EDT 威廉·波士顿 美国东部时间 2022 年 6 月 17 日上午 8:47
BERLIN—The head of Germany’s influential metalworker trade union urged Volkswagen AG to reconsider its presence in western China, where leaders of Western countries and human-rights groups say Beijing is persecuting the Uyghur Muslim minority. 柏林——德国有影响力的金属工人工会负责人敦促大众汽车重新考虑其在中国西部的存在,西方国家的领导人和人权组织称北京正在迫害维吾尔族穆斯林少数民族。
The call is the latest salvo in a growing campaign to force the world’s second-largest car maker to shut down a factory in Xinjiang, which has become the central focus for critics of the company’s heavy reliance on China as a market and manufacturing base. 这一呼吁是迫使世界第二大汽车制造商关闭新疆工厂的最新举措,该工厂已成为批评该公司严重依赖中国作为市场和制造基地的批评者的核心焦点。
“There is hardly any doubt that human-rights violations are taking place in Xinjiang,” Jörg Hofmann, head of the IG Metall union and a member of VW’s supervisory board, told the daily Braunschweiger Zeitung in an interview published Friday. “毫无疑问,新疆正在发生侵犯人权行为,”IG Metall 工会负责人兼大众汽车监事会成员约尔格霍夫曼在周五发表的一次采访中告诉《不伦瑞克日报》。
Mr. Hofmann said there were no indications that members of the Muslim Uyghur minority working for VW in the region had been the target of abuse. “Nevertheless, the question to be asked is what it means for the company’s reputation to continue investing there,” he added. 霍夫曼先生说,没有迹象表明在该地区为大众汽车工作的维吾尔穆斯林少数民族成员成为了虐待的目标。 “然而,要问的问题是,继续在那里投资对公司的声誉意味着什么,”他补充道。
An IG Metall spokeswoman confirmed the accuracy of Mr. Hofmann’s comments in the newspaper. IG Metall 的一位女发言人证实了霍夫曼在报纸上的评论的准确性。
VW has operated an assembly plant near the city of Urumqi in Xinjiang as a junior partner in a joint venture with China’s SAIC Motor Co. since 2013. Its decision to enter the region followed incentives by the Chinese government under a policy to bring more manufacturing jobs to the underdeveloped region. 自 2013 年以来,大众在新疆乌鲁木齐市附近经营一家装配厂,作为与中国上汽集团合资企业的初级合作伙伴。大众汽车决定进入该地区是在中国政府出台的一项政策鼓励下,以带来更多制造业就业机会 到欠发达地区。
But criticism of VW’s presence in China, where the company makes about 40% of its sales, has mounted as the government of President Xi Jinping has tightened its grip on Chinese society and adopted a more aggressive foreign-policy posture. 但随着中国国家主席希望的政府收紧对中国社会的控制并采取更激进的外交政策姿态,大众对大众汽车在中国的存在提出了越来越多的批评,该公司约占其销售额的 40%。
The pressure on VW also comes as the company is struggling to maintain production and sales amid supply-chain disruptions, a shortage of semiconductors and the war in Ukraine. 大众面临的压力也来自于该公司在供应链中断、半导体短缺和乌克兰战争的情况下努力维持生产和销售。
During the first five months of the year, VW sales dropped 26% from a year earlier to 3.07 million vehicles world-wide, the company said Friday. In China, VW sales fell 29% to 1.13 million vehicles. 该公司周五表示,今年前五个月,大众汽车全球销量同比下降 26%,至 307 万辆。 在中国,大众汽车销量下降 29% 至 113 万辆。
The German government earlier this month rejected VW applications for a renewal of investment insurance for its operations in China, citing concern about human-rights abuses in Xinjiang. The unprecedented step was driven by the Green Party, the junior partner in the new three-way coalition government in Berlin and a longtime China critic. 本月早些时候,德国政府以对新疆侵犯人权行为的担忧为由,拒绝了大众为其在中国的业务更新投资保险的申请。 这一史无前例的举措是由绿党推动的,绿党是柏林新三方联合政府的小伙伴,也是长期批评中国的人。
Mr. Hofmann’s comments are significant because of his role in the governance of VW. Under Germany’s two-tier management structure, IG Metall representatives hold half of the 20 seats on VW’s supervisory board, the body that oversees the company’s management, and has a say over big investments and executive appointments. 霍夫曼先生的评论意义重大,因为他在大众汽车的治理中扮演着重要角色。 在德国的两级管理结构下,IG Metall 代表占据大众汽车监事会 20 个席位的一半,该机构负责监督公司的管理,并对大额投资和高管任命拥有发言权。
“The company has previously made it publicly clear that Volkswagen takes a firm stand against forced labor in connection with its business activities worldwide,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement, adding that VW “stands for individual freedom, fair working conditions, open world trade, economic development and peaceful coexistence.” 公司发言人在一封电子邮件声明中表示:“该公司此前已公开明确表示,大众汽车在其全球业务活动中采取坚决反对强迫劳动的立场,并补充说大众汽车“代表个人自由、公平的工作条件、开放的 世界贸易、经济发展与和平共处。”
In the state of Lower Saxony, where VW is based and which holds a blocking minority of its voting rights, the Greens are putting pressure on the Social Democrat-Christian Democrat coalition government to force the company to be more transparent about the situation in Xinjiang ahead of a state election in October. 在大众汽车总部所在的下萨克森州,该州拥有少数投票权,绿党正在向社会民主党-基督教民主党联合政府施加压力,迫使该公司对未来的新疆局势更加透明 10 月的州选举。
Chief Executive Herbert Diess has been criticized for taking a business-as-usual approach to the issue and at times dismissing concerns about abuses against the Uyghurs. In 2019, Mr. Diess told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he was “not aware” of the internment camps that Western governments and human-rights groups say China had set up in the region for Uyghurs. More recently, he said the Xinjiang plant was “economically unimportant.” 首席执行官赫伯特·迪斯 (Herbert Diess) 因对这个问题采取一切照旧的态度,有时对虐待维吾尔人的担忧不予理睬而受到批评。 2019 年,迪斯先生告诉英国广播公司,他“不知道”西方政府和人权组织称中国在该地区为维吾尔人设立的拘禁营。 最近,他表示新疆工厂“在经济上并不重要”。
Beijing has rejected criticisms of its record, saying they amount to interference in China’s internal affairs. 北京否认对其记录的批评,称其等于干涉中国内政。 标红字体均为楼主更改,与原文作者无关。[/b]
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