Inside the Chinese Region That Has Become a No-Go for Western Companies

Ace Business Desk – Projects are dead, and surveillance is omnipresent in Xinjiang, which once lured Western companies such as Volkswagen

URUMQI, China—About a decade ago, some Western companies answered Beijing’s calls to invest in Xinjiang, an underdeveloped region in the country’s remote west. Some were drawn by the natural resources there. Others eyed the political points they could score with China. 

Today, many of those projects are dead or have been sold off. A visit by a Wall Street Journal reporter earlier this year to Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, found that the site of German carmaker Volkswagen —which was especially eager to invest in the region a little over a decade ago—sits lifeless.

The factory, in Urumqi’s Toutunhe economic development zone, was recently  sold. The carmaker and its joint venture partner SAIC Motor’s names have been scraped from the gate, leaving a blurry mark. 

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