The high walls of industrial buildings at Volkswagen’s assembly plant in the heart of northwest China’s Xinjiang region extend for hundreds of yards, once a symbol of German industrial might and now a marker of Volkswagen’s business and political quagmire in China.

位于中国西北新疆地区腹地的大众汽车装配厂的厂房高墙有好几百米长，它们曾是德国工业实力的象征，如今却成了大众汽车在中国的商业和政治困境的标志。

For four decades, Volkswagen Group was the market leader in China, where drivers prized its wide range of cars, from frugal Volkswagen Santanas to potent Audis and Porsches. But VW has been replaced as China’s go-to carmaker by the Chinese electric vehicle powerhouse BYD.

40年来，大众集团曾一直是中国汽车市场份额的最大占有者，中国消费者们珍爱大众的各种车型，从节俭型的桑塔纳，到高档的奥迪和保时捷。但大众作为中国人首选的汽车制造商地位已被中国电动汽车巨头比亚迪所取代。

BYD rapidly expanded all-electric car sales over the past three years, forcing VW to make a big bet last year on that market. Then BYD caught VW off guard again early this year by ramping up sales of plug-in gasoline-electric hybrids that can go long distances on only battery power, with tiny gasoline engines as backups. VW has few offerings in that fast-growing category, a gaping hole it won’t fully close until the end of next year.

比亚迪在过去三年里迅速扩大了全电动汽车的销量，迫使大众去年把大注押在电动汽车市场上。今年年初，比亚迪再次让大众措手不及，加大了插电式油电混合动力汽车的销量，这种汽车仅靠电池提供动力就有很长的续航里程，还配有小型汽油发动机作为备用。大众几乎没有这种快速增长的车型，这个巨大的空白要到明年年底才能完全补上。

“Chinese consumers see VW as the king of yesteryear, an era when global brands reigned supreme,” said Michael Dunne, a China auto industry consultant. “Today, many Chinese consumers shrug at VW products with indifference. They prefer fresher, more compelling offerings from home-team brands.”

“中国消费者将大众视为昔日王者，那是全球品牌主导市场的时代，”中国汽车行业顾问邓凯(Michael Dunne)说。“如今，许多中国消费者对大众的车型毫无兴趣。他们更喜欢本土品牌更新颖、更有吸引力的车型。”

China’s state-owned banks and local governments have been pumping money into local automakers, allowing some manufacturers to sell cars far below the cost of making them. Volkswagen executives say that they refuse to join the price-cutting war and that they have relinquished market share as a result.

中国的国有银行和地方政府一直在向本土汽车制造商注入资金，使得一些制造商能够以远低于制造成本的价格出售汽车。大众高管们表示，他们拒绝加入降价战，结果是他们放弃了市场份额。

比亚迪位于江苏淮安的装配线，比亚迪已取代了大众，成为中国人的首选汽车制造商。

“Electric cars are being forced onto the market at discounts of up to 50 percent,” a Volkswagen spokesman said. “We therefore decided last year that we do not want to continue growing at any price in this unhealthy environment.”

“电动汽车被迫以高达50%的折扣进入市场，”大众汽车的一名发言人说。“所以我们去年做出决定，在这种不健康的环境里，我们不想不惜一切代价继续增长。”

Volkswagen’s troubles in China are affecting the company as a whole. Its 10.2 percent drop in the number of cars sold in China during the first nine months of this year more than erased all of its sales gain in the rest of the world. The entire group’s worldwide sales shrank slightly as a result, and the company announced on Tuesday that its profits plunged in the third quarter.

大众在中国的困难正在影响整个公司。今年前九个月，大众在中国的汽车销量下降了10.2%，抵消了它在世界其他地区所有的销售增长。整个集团在全球的销售额受此影响，同比略有降低，大众周二宣布，三季度的利润大幅下降。

The company may have to close factories in Germany for the first time in its 87-year history — as many as three plants, each employing thousands of workers — partly because of competition from China.

大众可能不得不在德国关闭工厂，最多可能关闭三家，每家都有数千名工人，这是其87年历史上的首次，部分原因是来自中国的竞争。

Political missteps have compounded VW’s troubles.

政治上的失策加剧了大众的困难。

In May, VW started exporting battery-electric cars from China to Europe. The problem was that the European Union had already begun moving toward imposing tariffs on such vehicles brought in from China.

今年5月，大众开始向欧洲出口它在中国生产的电动汽车。问题是，欧盟已开始对从中国进口这种汽车征收关税。

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, began an investigation over a year ago into whether the Chinese government had improperly subsidized electric cars. Beijing responded by pressuring manufacturers not to cooperate with the European inquiry. Unlike some other foreign manufacturers, VW declined to share information with the European Commission.

欧盟执行机构欧盟委员会一年多前开始了一项调查，以确定中国政府是否不正当地补贴了电动汽车生产。中国政府对此作出的回应是向制造商施压，要求它们不要配合欧盟的调查。大众与其他一些外国制造商不同，拒绝向欧盟委员会分享信息。

VW began shipping Cupra Tavascan battery-electric cars in May to Europe from a new design and production complex in central China. But soon after, the European Commission decided to impose the tariffs. Companies like VW that did not cooperate were told they would face the highest tariff of all starting this week: 37 percent.

大众汽车从今年5月开始向欧洲出口Cupra Tavascan纯电车型，这款车是在大众位于中国中部的一个新的设计和生产基地制造的。但不久后，欧盟委员会决定对中国电动汽车征收关税。像大众这样的没有配合调查的汽车企业被告知，它们出口欧洲的汽车从本周起将面临最高的关税：37%。

VW managed to wangle a reduction in its tariffs to 21 percent, and those tariffs took effect on Wednesday. But Tesla, which is one of VW’s biggest rivals and had cooperated earlier, persuaded the commission to cut its tariff to just 7.8 percent. BYD is paying 17 percent. VW faces the possibility of a lasting disadvantage in its home market on any electric cars imported from China, the world’s low-cost producer.

大众汽车设法将关税降至21%，关税已于本周三生效。但特斯拉在早些时候配合了欧盟的调查，它说服欧盟委员会将其关税降至仅7.8%。特斯拉是大众汽车最大的竞争对手之一。比亚迪将面临17%的关税。对于从中国——这个世界低成本生产国进口的任何电动车，大众汽车在本土市场都可能面临持久的不利地位。

乌鲁木齐维吾尔族聚居区大巴扎前的一辆装甲车。

The latest difficulty for VW came on Oct. 23, when the foreign ministry said the Volkswagen brand’s chief marketing officer in China had tested positive for cocaine, been jailed for 10 days and then deported. He had just returned from a vacation in Thailand when he was tested. VW declined to comment on the case.

大众汽车的最新难题出现在今年10月23日。中国外交部在那天表示，大众汽车集团中国市场首席营销官可卡因检测呈阳性，他被拘留了10天后，已被驱逐出境。他刚从泰国度假回来，返回北京时血液中被检查出毒品成分。大众拒绝就此事发表评论。

But Volkswagen’s longest-running problem in China lies in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.

但大众在中国持续时间最长的问题在新疆首府乌鲁木齐。

Volkswagen and a state-owned joint venture partner, SAIC Motor of Shanghai, built an assembly plant in Urumqi in 2013 to make inexpensive, gasoline-powered cars to sell in western China. Volkswagen had made a point of hiring numerous Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in Xinjiang. Uyghurs have long faced discrimination from Chinese employers, and distrust of Uyghurs deepened after deadly attacks by Uyghur militants from 2008 to 2014.

2013年，大众与国有企业上海上汽集团合资在乌鲁木齐建了一家装配厂，生产廉价的汽油动力汽车，在中国的西部地区销售。大众曾特意雇佣大量维吾尔族人，维吾尔族是新疆的一个以穆斯林为主的民族。维吾尔族长期以来一直受到中国雇主的歧视，维吾尔族激进分子在2008年到2014年发动了多次致命袭击事件后，中国雇主对维吾尔族人的不信任进一步加深。

Beginning in 2014, China cracked down hard on Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang. As many as a million ethnic Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other minorities were sent to indoctrination camps, detention centers and prisons. Associated forced-labor programs to send rural Uyghurs to factories and other urban jobs also drew heavy criticism from human rights groups and have prompted the United States and some European countries to restrict imports from Xinjiang since 2021.

中国从2014年开始对新疆的维吾尔族和其他以穆斯林为主的少数民族进行严厉打击。多达一百万维吾尔族、哈萨克族和其他少数民族被送进了再教育营、拘禁营和监狱。与严打有关的强迫劳动项目把维吾尔农民送到工厂和其他城市的工作岗位劳动，这已引发了人权组织的严厉批评，并导致美国和一些欧洲国家自2021年起限制从新疆进口产品。

VW had to stop the delivery of 30,000 Audis and other premium cars to American customers last spring after it realized that a VW supplier had been buying an engine component from Xinjiang, in violation of the American regulations. The luxury cars sat at American ports while replacement parts were vetted and installed.

去年春天，大众汽车不得不暂停向美国客户交付3万辆奥迪和其他高档汽车，因为公司意识到大众汽车的一家供应商一直在从新疆购买发动机部件，违反了美国的规定。这些豪华汽车停在美国的港口，等待更换经过审查的部件。

At the same time, VW faces accusations by overseas activists that it has used forced labor by Uyghurs to build its test track near Urumqi. VW denies doing so. But when it hired an auditing firm late last year to review its compliance in Xinjiang with international labor standards, the audit was criticized overseas for not doing enough to protect the anonymity of the workers who participated.

与此同时，大众汽车也面临海外活动人士的指控，他们说，大众在乌鲁木齐附近修建测试车辆用的跑道时使用了维吾尔族的强迫劳动。大众汽车否认了这一指控。去年年底，大众聘请了一家审计公司对其在新疆是否遵守国际劳工标准的问题进行调查，但海外有人批评了审计工作，称其在为提供信息的工人保密姓名上做得不够。

乌鲁木齐的一家小鹏汽车经销店。大众去年收购了中国电动汽车制造商小鹏4.99%的股份，双方开始一起研发电动汽车。

Another problem for VW is that the joint venture assembly plant in Urumqi has not made cars since 2019 because of weak sales. It is down to 190 workers who do the final preparation of cars for delivery to VW dealerships in western China.

大众面临的另一个问题是，由于销售疲软，乌鲁木齐的合资装配厂自2019年以来一直没有生产汽车。工厂只剩下190名工人，他们只是在做将汽车交付给中国西部的大众经销店前的最后准备工作。

Demand for gasoline-powered cars has collapsed in China. Exports from Urumqi are impractical: Nearby Central Asian countries buy few cars, and the plant is 1,800 miles from the coast, too far for seaborne shipments.

中国对汽油动力汽车的需求已经大幅下降。从乌鲁木齐向国外出口汽车不切实际：附近的中亚国家很少购买汽车，而且那个装配厂距离海岸2900公里，让海运变得遥不可及。

In interviews this month, Volkswagen owners in Urumqi said they were happy with their gasoline-powered cars and did not want electric models. Their biggest concern about electric cars was that they were incompatible with the region’s severe cold, which hurts electric cars’ batteries and reduces their driving range.

本月接受采访时，乌鲁木齐的大众车主们说，他们对自己的油动车很满意，不想要电动车。他们对电动汽车最大的担忧是，这种车不适应该地区的严寒天气，严寒天气会损坏电池，缩短续航里程。

But Xinjiang by itself is a small market for cars. With electric cars and plug-in hybrids making up 54 percent of China’s car market and still rising, nationwide sales of gasoline-powered cars are expected to fade further.

但新疆自己的汽车市场不大。电动汽车和插电式混合动力汽车已占中国汽车市场的54%，而且仍在增长，预计全国范围内油动车的销量将进一步下降。

VW needs to close assembly plants in China for gasoline-powered cars. It has halted production at a factory in Nanjing in eastern China and has not assigned any future car models to it — harbingers of a possible closing.

大众需要关闭在中国的油动车组装厂。它已停止了在南京的一家工厂的生产，而且尚未为工厂分配任何未来的车型，这可能预示着大众可能会关闭这家工厂。

Since February, VW has been saying it is in “advanced talks” to decide the future of its activities in Xinjiang. But exiting Xinjiang is proving hard for any foreign company.

自今年2月以来，大众一直表示，它正与有关方面“进一步谈判”，以决定公司未来在新疆的活动。但事实证明，退出新疆对任何外国公司来说都是困难的。

BASF, the German chemicals giant, said it had started trying a year ago to sell its stakes in two joint ventures in Xinjiang. But it has yet to win government permission. In September, the Ministry of Commerce began investigating whether PVH, the corporate parent of the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger clothing brands, had taken “discriminatory measures” by not buying products from Xinjiang.

德国化工巨头巴斯夫表示，它一年前就开始试图出售其在新疆两家合资企业的股份。但它至今仍未获得政府许可。今年9月，中国商务部开始调查卡尔文·克莱恩和汤米·希尔费格服装品牌的母公司PVH不从新疆购买产品，是否属于“歧视性做法”。

Complicating VW’s dilemma is that its partner in Xinjiang, SAIC, is wholly owned by the Shanghai municipal government and closely follows Beijing’s wishes. But SAIC’s continued involvement is starting to draw criticism from human rights activists in Europe. China’s foreign ministry declined to comment, and SAIC Motor, which owns and manufactures the MG brand, did not respond to requests for comment.

让大众汽车的两难境地变得更复杂的是，大众在新疆的合作伙伴上汽集团是上海市政府的全资子公司，它严格遵从中国政府的意愿。但上汽集团的持续参与已招致欧洲人权活动人士的批评。中国外交部拒绝置评，拥有并生产上汽名爵品牌的上汽集团也没有回复记者的置评请求。

In February, the foreign ministry urged VW and BASF not to leave Xinjiang, saying they should “cherish the opportunity to invest and develop in Xinjiang.”

今年2月，中国外交部曾呼吁大众汽车和巴斯夫不要离开新疆，说它们应该“珍惜在新疆投资和发展的机会”。