All Reading
This section contains a curated list of useful articles, investigations, books and other reading materials. The list is updated on a weekly basis and suggestions for additions are welcome.
Starting Points:
Uyghur Race as the Enemy: China’s Legalized Authoritarian Oppression & Mass Imprisonment
This report explores how China’s systematic, large-scale imprisonment of Uyghurs not only amounts to a crime against humanity, but also dangerous lawfare at mass scale.
Xinjiang is ‘one of the most heavily policed regions in the world’: study
A new report from the Uyghur Human Rights Project points out that there are twice as many Armed Police mobile attachments in Xinjiang than in Beijing, despite having only a fraction of the capital’s population.
Policing East Turkistan: Mapping Police and Security Forces in the Uyghur Region
This report explores the institutions of policing in Xinjiang, helping to build a fuller picture of the systematic and Party-state-sponsored human rights atrocities perpetrated against Uyghurs and other Turkic people.
Forced Marriage of Uyghur Women: State Policies for Interethnic Marriage
This report examines the state-sponsored campaign of forcefully assimilating Uyghurs through coerced inter-ethnic marriages between Han men and Uyghur women.
Xinjiang Official Figures Reveal Higher Prisoner Count
The Chinese government has used its justice system to sentence and imprison an estimated half-million people during the brutal crackdown in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said today. Research indicates that the total number of people wrongfully imprisoned is much higher than official figures.
From Strategic Reassurance to Running Over Roadblocks: A Review of Xi Jinping’s Foreign Policy Record
This essay reviews China’s foreign policy record during Xi Jinping’s time as leader, examining the evolution of China’s statecraft under him, the performance of Beijing’s pursuits of its interests and the direction China’s foreign policy might take in the coming years.
OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in Xinjiang
"Serious human rights violations have been committed in XUAR in the context of the Government’s application of counter-’extremism’ strategies,” the U.N. office said in the report.
Xinjiang officials use China’s anti-crime campaign to target ‘disloyal’ Uyghurs
Authorities in China’s far-western Xinjiang region used the Chinese government’s 100-day crackdown on criminals and fugitives to target Uyghurs deemed “religious extremists” and “two-faced,” a police officer in a major city said.
Xi Jinping’s Xinjiang visit may signal new emphasis on the assimilation of Uyghurs
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Xinjiang signals a new emphasis on the assimilation of the Uyghurs, analysts said.
China’s Xi, in Xinjiang, signals no change to Uyghur policy
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, on a visit this week to the Xinjiang region where his government is widely accused of oppressing predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities, showed no signs of backing off policies that have come under harsh criticism from the U.S. and many European countries.
Who are the Uyghurs? Genocide, forced labour and endless Chinese atrocities; Dolkun Isa interview
Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, discusses the history of Chinese repression in Xinjiang and his lived experiences of the system of forced assimilation, the silencing of influential Uyghur figures and China’s mass detention of Uyghurs.
Cultivating friendly forces: The Chinese Communist Party’s influence operations in the Xinjiang Diaspora
This report explores how the CCP’s united front system is used to monitor the Uyghur diaspora and counter criticism of its policies in Xinjiang.
Four Takeaways From a Times Investigation Into China’s Expanding Surveillance State
China is collecting a staggering amount of personal data from everyday citizens at a previously-unknown scale, a Times investigation has found.
Unemployment Monitoring and Early Warning: New Trends in Xinjiang’s Coercive Labor Placement Systems
This new report charts concerning new trends in Xinjiang forced labor as the region now mandates "every able-bodied person to achieve stable employment," and keeps transferred Uyghurs in their place through an unemployment monitoring/surveillance system.
The Xinjiang Police Files Should Prompt Action Against Uyghur Genocide
Looking through the photos of the 2,884 inmates in the Xinjiang Police Files is not for the faint of heart. You scroll – as you would on Instagram – past face after face of a people unjustly detained by the Chinese government for no other reason than that they are Uyghur.
Public Security Minister’s Speech Describes Xi Jinping’s Direction of Mass Detentions in Xinjiang
An internal Chinese government document provides new support for the extraordinary scale of internment during what was likely its peak in 2018 and 2019. The document, a transcript of an internal June 15, 2018 speech by Minister of Public Security Zhao, reinforces the plausibility of previous detention estimates and is one of many documents leaked as part of the Xinjiang Police Files.
The Xinjiang Police Files: Re-Education Camp Security and Political Paranoia in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Previously, witnesses and leaked state documents outlined the securitised nature of China’s re-education facilities. Now, the “Xinjiang Police Files,” a major cache of classified files from internal XUAR police networks, provides an unprecedented inside view. This article authenticates and contextualises the Xinjiang Police Files within the growing field of published internal XUAR government documents.
The faces of China’s detention camps in Xinjiang
A new leak of Chinese government records reveals thousands of mug shots of Uyghurs, photos from inside the internment camps, and new details of the national mass detention program.
The “Xinjiang Papers”: How Xi Jinping commands Chinese policy
This report shows how the Xinjiang papers reveal the centralised decision-making behind the persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Great Wall of Steel: China’s Global Campaign to Suppress the Uyghurs
This report posits that the focus on how Uyghurs are treated within China ignores China’s harassment of Uyghurs and Kazakhs living abroad.