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:
‘Like a war zone’: Congress hears of China’s abuses in Xinjiang ‘re-education camps
Two women who say they experienced and eventually escaped Chinese “re-education” camps provided first-hand testimony to members of the US Congress.
Former Uyghur Muslim preacher confirmed dead in prison in China’s Xinjiang
A Uyghur Muslim preacher serving a five-year sentence in China’s Xinjiang region for making a religious pilgrimage abroad died in prison in February, according to a local official.
Commission on China - Annual Report 2022
This year’s report documents the mass persecution that punctures the “Chinese human rights” narrative that Xi Jinping attempts to sell to the world.
Event: Norwegian Parliament Hearings on Human Rights Atrocities Against Uyghurs
In this series of speeches and testimonies hosted at the Norwegian Parliament, hear more about the situation in Xinjiang from those who have experienced it first hand, and learn more about what you and Norway can do.
Event: The Uyghur Genocide & Threats to Religious Liberty: A Conversation with Commissioner Nury Turkel
Featuring Commissioner Nury Turkel, a human rights advocate for Uyghur people, this event features discussion on Turkel’s advocacy efforts, and what the international community can do to safeguard religious liberty in China.
100 Camp Testimonies
In "100 Camp Testimonies," former internees share first-hand accounts of the camps, and how family members, relatives, and friends have been arbitrarily incarcerated.
The Turkish school preserving culture of young Uighurs in exile
In Istanbul, children whose families face persecution in Xinjiang, China, attend a ‘Uighur School’ that strives to safeguard their cultural identity.
Making Xinjiang Sanctions Work - Full Report
Can economic sanctions address Xinjiang forced labour? Drawing on 3 original datasets containing over 12,000 datapoints, confidential interviews and a year of research, this final report presents the most comprehensive analysis of Xinjiang sanctions to date, and offers ideas for strengthening them.
Leaked photos of Uyghurs interned at Xinjiang detention centres 'devastating,' says activist
Photos recently published online showing thousands of Uyghurs detained as part of China's secretive mass detention system in Xinjiang region have terrified Turnisa Matsedik-Qira. The nurse and deputy director of Campaign for Uyghurs in British Columbia lost contact with family members in the area four years ago. Now, she fears finding images of a relative or friend in the leaked database.
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.
UN human rights chief asks China to rethink Uyghur policies
Michelle Bachelet, a top U.N. human rights official who recently visited Xinjiang, raised concerns with Chinese officials about the impact of measures on the rights of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups.
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.
Uyghur detention: Leaked files reveal locations of lost loved ones
A huge collection of data, which are linked to China's treatment of Uyghurs and other minorities, has been handed to the BBC. The cache reveals, in unprecedented detail, China’s use of “re-education” camps and formal prisons as two separate but related systems of mass detention for Uyghurs. They also include information on missing people, seen for the first time by their family members.
Xinjiang Police Files: Inside a Chinese internment camp
A giant cache of secret documents reveals the highly coercive and potentially lethal systems of control used against minority groups in China’s internment camps.
Thousands of ‘Terrorism Suspects’ on ‘Shanghai List’ Include Uyghur Children, Elderly
The recently leaked document provides new insight into how China characterizes extremist threats. More than three quarters of the names on a recently leaked Chinese government list of some 10,000 “suspected terrorists” are ethnic Uyghurs, while the document includes hundreds of minors and the elderly, providing rare insight into how Beijing characterizes threats it has used to lock up more than a million people.
No Escape - The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs
As a human rights attorney and Uyghur activist who now serves on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Nury Turkel tells his personal story to help explain the urgency and scope of the Uyghur crisis.
Exclusive: Former Xinjiang prisoner arrives in U.S. as key witness to abuses
A Christian Chinese national who spent 10 months in a Xinjiang detention camp has arrived in the United States after months of behind-the-scenes lobbying by U.S. lawmakers, human rights activists and international lawyers.
Relatives of detained Uyghurs forced to work in Xinjiang factories
Hundreds of family members of detained Uyghur residents of a small community in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region have been forced to work in local government-run factories, a source with knowledge of the situation and a local police officer said.