In light of new evidence of forced labor at a subsidiary of VW's joint venture in Xinjiang, a critical examination reveals that the audit report should never have claimed to provide an honest assessment of the situation.
In December 2023, Volkswagen published an audit of its much-criticized joint venture factory in Xinjiang. The region operates the largest system of state-imposed forced labor in the world today. Unsurprisingly, the report claimed to absolve the firm from exposure to forced labor.