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:
Searching for truth in China's Uighur 're-education' camps
Rights groups say hundreds of thousands have been detained in Xinjiang camps without trial, but China argues they voluntarily attend centres which combat "extremism". The BBC went inside one of them.
“United Front.” Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi
The notion of 'united front' was first adopted by the Chinese Communist Party in the early 1920s, and was originally connected to the tactic of cross-class mobilisation. In time, the original concept took on a broader meaning, coming to refer to the CCP's ability to work with, unite under its guidance, and manipulate other political parties and social forces, eliminating possible sources of opposition by means of cooptation and control.
“Thought Reform.” Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi
Thought reform,' or ideological remoulding, has been and remains a key tenet of leadership in the Chinese Communist Party. The model in which 'thought errors' or 'erroneous lines' could spell political defeat or personal demise was perfected under Mao Zedong in the 1940s and it remains a political technology much valued by China's current leadership under Xi Jinping.
Detained and Disappeared: Intellectuals Under Assault in the Uyghur Homeland
Since April 2017, the Chinese government has interned, imprisoned, or forcibly disappeared at least 435 intellectuals as part of its intensified assault on Uyghurs and erasure of their culture. This group is likely a small fraction of all Uyghur intellectuals suffering serious human rights violations.
‘Saved’ by state terror: Gendered violence and propaganda in Xinjiang
The ongoing atrocities targeting Turkic Muslim peoples in Xinjiang are, in many forms, gendered violence. As the “People’s War on Terror” campaign escalates, Han officials and settlers are removing Turkic Muslim men who they perceive as threats to “security” and “safety,” emptying out a clear path for Han settlers to insert their presence onto Uyghur and Kazakh homelands. This comes at the expense of the women who remain.
Firsthand Accounts From Xinjiang Camps
A massive, long-running security crackdown in Xinjiang has included the detention of an estimated 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a series of internment camps across the region. Several recent reports, meanwhile, provide a glimpse into the conditions inside the camps.
Uighurs’ Testimonies of Atrocities Inside Chinese Camps
Voices from all over the world have called for the closure of the Chinese camps and for China to grant the Uighur people freedom to practice their religion and way of life. Citizen Truth spoke with three Uighurs who have been impacted by the Chinese camps.
The world shrugs as China locks up 1 million Muslims
It has been two years since the internment camps first came to light internationally, and a series of reports from Xinjiang have made vivid the scale of the abuses. Yet foreign governments and corporations are content to pretend it isn't happening.
China’s Algorithms of Repression: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
This report provides a detailed description and analysis of a mobile app that police and other officials use to communicate with the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), one of the main systems Chinese authorities use for mass surveillance in Xinjiang. The findings provide an unprecedented window into how mass surveillance actually works in Xinjiang, because the IJOP system is central to a larger ecosystem of social monitoring and control in the region.
China: How Mass Surveillance Works in Xinjiang
Chinese authorities are using a mobile app to carry out illegal mass surveillance and arbitrary detention of Muslims in China’s western Xinjiang region, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report presents new evidence about the surveillance state in Xinjiang, where the government has subjected 13 million Turkic Muslims to heightened repression as part of its “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism.”
Eat pork, speak Chinese, no beards: Muslim former detainee tells of China camp trauma
For Muslims in China’s re-education camps, indoctrination starts with early morning patriotic songs and sessions of self-criticism, and often ends with a meal of only pork, according to one exiled former detainee. For Omir Bekali, an ethnic Kazakh who says he spent several weeks in a camp before fleeing to Turkey a year ago, it was more about trauma than education.
1.5 million Muslims could be detained in China's Xinjiang: academic
A leading researcher on China’s ethnic policies said on Wednesday that an estimated 1.5 million Uighurs and other Muslims could be held in so-called re-education centers in Xinjiang region, up from his earlier figure of 1 million. Adrian Zenz, an independent German researcher, said that his new estimate was based on satellite images, public spending on detention facilities and witness accounts of overcrowded facilities and missing family members.
Securitization, insecurity and conflict in contemporary Xinjiang: has PRC counter-terrorism evolved into state terror?
This issue first provides an overview of the programme of 'de-extremification' and mass internment in Xinjiang since early 2017. It then situates this development against the ‘ideological turn’ in Chinese Communist Party policy under President Xi Jinping, highlighting the new emphasis on stability maintenance and ideational governance. It also explores experiences of (in)security in Uyghur communities in- and outside of Xinjiang in the era of internment to consider how far PRC counter-terrorism initiatives have now evolved into state terror.
The Spectre of Insecurity: The CCP’s Mass Internment Strategy in Xinjiang
Based on a close reading of official sources, this article explores the evolution of China’s mass internment strategy and the key policy-drivers, institutions, and actors in Xinjiang policy over the last decade.
Cultural Genocide in Xinjiang: How China Targets Uyghur Artists, Academics, and Writers
China depicts its measures as necessary to counter Islamic extremism, but the huge numbers involved, and the detention of many Uyghur cultural leaders suggests otherwise.
‘Counter-extremism’ in Xinjiang: Understanding China’s Community-focused Counter-terrorism Tactics
Drawing on Chinese sources, official documents, and expert analyses, this article argues that the Chinese Communist Party’s focus on extremism as Xinjiang’s main threat aims to legitimize the massive social transformation of the region.
'If you enter a camp, you never come out': inside China's war on Islam
Beijing has aggressively defended its policies and sought to portray the camps as benign and Xinjiang as peaceful thanks to government efforts. A starkly different reality emerges in Lop county, where Guardian interviews and analysis of public documents reveal new details about the government’s continuing campaign in one of the worst-affected areas of Xinjiang.
Uyghur woman details life inside Chinese 're-education camp' in Xinjiang
A Uyghur woman has detailed conditions she says were tantamount to torture inside one of China's "re-education camps" in far western Xinjiang province. Gulbahar Jelilova, who says she spent 15 months inside one of the camps, has given a rare firsthand account of the conditions.
Where Did the One Million Figure for Detentions in Xinjiang’s Camps Come From?
Given the Chinese government has not released its own official numbers, and given the extreme obstacles that prevent independent on-the-ground accounting of camp inmates, how do outside observers arrive at the one million estimate?
‘Now We Don’t Talk Anymore’ - Inside the ‘Cleansing’ of Xinjiang
Last summer, when I traveled to Xinjiang, I witnessed the most abject sense of fear and trauma I have encountered in 27 years of researching identity and religion among its Uighur communities.