Tesla, VW at Risk of Ties to Uyghur Forced Labor in China

Five of the world’s major carmakers aren’t sufficiently mapping their supply chains to stamp out links to forced labor programs in China’s Xinjiang region, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

The area in China’s northwest is an important aluminum producer, accounting for about 9% of global supply, and the industry has ties to state-sponsored labor transfer programs that have been accused of coercing Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities into jobs, it said.

That’s left legacy automakers Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG, as well as electric-vehicle producers Tesla Inc. and China’s BYD ...