Tesla faces strong criticism for its recent announcement that it will open a showroom in a region of China associated with the alleged genocide of the Uyghur people.

The electric vehicle manufacturer announced on December 31 that it would open the showroom via Weibo, a Chinese social media app. Though welcomed by some in China, a range of people have condemned the action.

“I’ll be blunt: Any company doing business in Xinjiang is complicit in the cultural genocide taking place there. But Tesla’s actions are especially despicable,” Scott Paul, president of the Alliance of American Manufacturing industry body, told the BBC.

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U.S. Senator Marco Rubio also criticized the decision over Twitter, saying that Tesla and other corporations working in the area are helping the Chinese government “cover up genocide and slave labor in the region.”

The area has been the cause of much controversy with a number of companies attempting to cut ties with it as a result of its reputation as the locus of crimes against humanity. Retail giants like Nike and H&M have distanced themselves from Xinjiang following allegations that they may have used cotton that was picked by forced laborers.

Tesla isn’t the only automaker facing criticism as a result of its ties to Xinjiang, per the BBC. In 2020, Volkswagen said that it would continue to operate a car plant in the region after it said that it would endeavor to ensure that no slave labor was used in its factory in Urumqi, the region’s capital. These promises, however, have been called insufficient by German politicians.

The Uyghurs are a Muslim cultural minority in China and there have been numerous reports that the Chinese government has forced them into camps and into slavery in factories and in fields. Allegations of genocide have also been leveled against the Chinese government.