It is important to him "that we are roughly equally well positioned in all three major sales markets of Europe, North America and China," said former Porsche boss Blume, who took over the reins at the Volkswagen Group on Thursday. Volkswagen has been operating a factory in the city of Urumqi in Xinjiang since 2013 together with the Chinese state-owned company Saic.

In a report published this week on the situation of the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, former UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet denounced "serious human rights violations". The "extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention" of Uyghurs and members of other majority Muslim groups could also constitute "international crimes, particularly crimes against humanity," the report says.

Bachelet released her long-awaited report on Wednesday, just minutes before the end of her term. Human rights activists have been accusing the leadership in Beijing of systematically suppressing the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang for years. More than a million people are being held in camps in the western China region, according to human rights activists. The Chinese authorities are accused, among other things, of forced sterilization and forced labour.

China has repeatedly dismissed the allegations as "lies". Beijing also described Bachelet's report as "completely illegal and invalid".