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:
Statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet after official visit to China
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s full statement from the virtual press conference held at the conclusion of her official six-day visit to China.
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.
Uyghur voices in Istanbul
A Uyghur couple turns to music — inspired by the songs and poems of their culture — in response to the crisis in their homeland.
VW Under Fire for Ongoing Operations in Xinjiang
Volkswagen continues to operate a factory in the heart of Xinjiang, despite massive criticism from human rights activists. Is the company trying to prove its loyalty to the Chinese government?
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.
China claims sabotage as UN rights official visits Xinjiang
China on Tuesday said the U.S., Britain and other foreign powers are seeking to sabotage its foreign relations by orchestrating criticism surrounding a trip by the top United Nations official for human rights.
Xinjiang in focus as UN’s Michelle Bachelet visits China
The UN human rights chief has met China’s top diplomat as she began a six-day trip to the country that will include the remote Xinjiang region. The tour by Michelle Bachelet marks the first by the UN’s top rights official to China in nearly two decades and comes as Beijing stands accused of widespread abuses of Muslims in far-western Xinjiang.
Everybody’s Business: The Xinjiang Goods Entering Global Supply Chains
This analysis of the Xinjiang economy examines specific goods produced in the region that have outsized impact on global supply chains. Organizations involved in the purchase of these agricultural and industrial products are at risk of supporting oppression.
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.
Exiled Uyghurs Fear China’s Reach
Amannisa Abdulla is raising her two children, ages 9 and 4, without her husband. Her husband, who is also Uyghur, was deported to China four years ago. The last time she spoke, she learned he was in prison in Xinjiang.
China database reveals the thousands detained in Xinjiang
A leaked list of thousands of detained Uyghurs has helped Nursimangul Abdureshid shed some light on the whereabouts of her missing family members, who have disappeared in China's sweeping crackdown on Xinjiang. The previously unreported database, which has been seen by AFP, lists over 10,000 imprisoned Uyghurs from southwestern Xinjiang's Konasheher county -- including over 100 from Abdureshid's village.
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.
China razes Kashgar’s iconic Grand Bazaar
Analysis of satellite images shows dramatic changes in the market, including the removal of buildings and the roofs of stalls, between photos taken a month apart. According to one local official, a new tourist attraction will arise in its place.
Xinjiang officials said to pay Uyghurs to perform dance at Kashgar mosque
Authorities in Kashgar allegedly paid Muslim Uyghur men to dance outside the most famous mosque in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region to celebrate the end of Ramadan, RFA reports.
Xinjiang cotton found in Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss tops, researchers say
Researchers say they have found traces of Xinjiang cotton in shirts and T-shirts made by Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss, appearing to contradict the German clothing companies’ promises to revise their supply chains after allegations of widespread forced labour in the Chinese region.