Report: Tesla Shanghai manufacturing unit equipped by military-linked corporations
Tesla Motors, led by Elon Musk, operates a large car factory in Shanghai that is supplied by Chinese companies linked to the People’s Liberation Army, according to a report in the online newsletter WireScreen.
The Jan. 2 report based on open-source reports states that many of the 84 companies that supplied key components to Tesla’s “gigafactory” north of Hangzhou Bay near Shanghai are also contractors for the Chinese military. The report found no evidence the links violated U.S. laws, but said some suppliers “have been sanctioned by the U.S. and have had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”
The Shanghai factory produces nearly 1 million Teslas annually, with roughly one-third of the vehicles exported to other Asian countries, Europe and Latin America.
The report said nearly 80% of the identified 84 Chinese suppliers are linked to the government, with 40% part of the military-civilian fusion program that funnels advanced technology to China’s military. Over 30% of the Chinese suppliers are also involved in Chinese defense contracts, the report said.
The report also revealed that one Chinese company, the chemicals producer Xinjiang Tianye, supplied ethylene glycol used in coolant for Tesla China’s 2022 Model 3 cars.
Xinjiang Tianye was found to be 52.3% owned by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a state-owned company that was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2020 for links to “serious human rights abuse against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.”
Tesla operates a subsidiary in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, where the State Department has declared China to be engaged in genocide against Uyghur ethnic minorities, imprisoning over 1 million people.
