It was a self report, most likely to avoid harsher consequences. Just like the diesel emissions scandal it is something that would not be persecuted in Germany the same way because the car industry owns the German government.

If they build crappy cars of their own, they have no need to import crappy cars from abroad. Indeed convenient.

@TheGrandNagus

If you're a maker of something as complex as cars, and you order a lot of your parts from a country like China, good luck not having anything that benefited from forced labour.

I still can't believe the west chose, of their own volition, to destroy their own manufacturing base. What a travesty.

If you don't understand that, feel free to go to Xinjiang and work in one if the camps there. It may help you understand.

I hope the EU will soon introduce its Supply Chain Law as planned and make the use of forced labour a crime that can be punished.

As a german I agree on principle, but utter lack of morals is hardly noteworthy nowadays. Any kind of large corporation has only one value: profit.

Which big corporation that operates internationally has any morals?

I wouldn't buy a VW vehicle based on their decline in quality and affordability during the last few decades alone. If you don't want to buy products that contain components or materials made by Chinese, or really, any, slave labour, you'll have a hard time buying any industrial product. Of course, the usage of slave labour by corporations needs to be stopped, but as an individual, that's hardly possible, because often you don't have any choice. This problem needs concerted action by governments, ideally with personal consequences for the people responsible.

Agreed, but you better be ready to not buy any other vehicles. They all use parts made in China.