China vehemently denies all of this, claiming that these are vocational training schools, voluntarily attended, and intended to “reform and retrain” local people for a more meaningful economic role.
After massive amounts of data were hacked from police servers in the region and shared with multiple news outlets, China’s defense has once again come to the fore.
document, dubbed Xinjiang Police Files, were leaked by an undisclosed source to academic Adrian Zenz, an international expert on internal Chinese government documents. Zenz works for The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a US-based non-profit organization.
Interestingly, the leak occurred while UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet was on her long-awaited and controversial visit to Xinjiang.
What’s in the leaked files?
The BBC said leaked internal documents included more than 5,000 police photographs of Uighurs between January and July 2018, of which at least 2,800 are of certain detainees. These include classified speeches by senior officers, internal police manuals, detention details for more than 20,000 Uighurs and photographs from highly sensitive locations.
The files, parts of which have been verified by several news organizations, also provide a window into life in detention facilities.
Photos show officers restraining prisoners with batons and chains, while other guards wearing camouflage stand with firearms.
Leaked documents show that interns were blindfolded, handcuffed and chained in detention camps.
The photos provide evidence that the detainees in the Xinjiang camps also include minors—the youngest only 15, and the eldest 73.
A security guard watches from a guard tower around a detention facility in Yarkent County in northwestern China’s Xinjiang (AP)
‘Rape during interrogation’
Those who managed to escape from the camps have reported horrific accounts of physical torture and sexual abuse.
Some Uighur women said they were raped during interrogation by Chinese authorities, while other fellow captives were also raped.
Tursunya Ziyawudan, a 42-year-old Uighur women’s camp survivor, told Voice of America that in 2018 she was beaten, sexually assaulted and gang-raped during interrogation at an internment camp in Kunes County, northern Xinjiang.
Ziavudan told VOA, “On four separate occasions, I was taken to an interrogation room, where I was beaten up, given an unbearably electric shock to my private part with electric sticks and gang-raped me. Gone.”
However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that these claims have no factual basis.
China raises the bar of ‘religious extremism’
Leaked documents provide insight into how Chinese leaders viewed Xinjiang’s minority population as a security threat, with a minister warning that more than two million people in southern Xinjiang alone were “serious of the infiltration of extremist religious views.” was significantly affected”.
The files include a 2017 internal speech by a former Communist Party secretary in Xinjiang, in which he allegedly ordered guards to shoot to kill anyone who tries to escape, and calls from officials in the region. Calls upon “to exercise firm control over the religious believers”.
Leaked photo of detainees guarded by police chanting or singing clearly at the Tekes County Detention Center in western China’s Xinjiang region (AFP).
Those whose photos have been leaked include 17-year-old Zeitunigul Ablehat, who was detained for listening to an illegal speech, and Bilal Qasim, 16, who has been sentenced for apparently being related to other detainees.
Some others have been detained simply for practicing Islam or visiting a Muslim-majority country.
The BBC says the documents reveal multiple instances of people being punished retrospectively for “crimes” decades ago – in 2017 for “studying Islamic scripture with their grandmother” for a few days in 2010 One person got 10 years in prison.
About 16,000 mosques in Xinjiang—nearly two-thirds of the total—have been destroyed or damaged since 2017 mostly due to government policies.
‘Xi’s direct hand in Xinjiang’s policies’
The Chinese leadership’s top-notch support for Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang has also come to the fore in recently leaked documents.
The Minister of Public Security’s 2018 internal speech refers to President Xi Jinping’s direct orders to increase the capacity of detention facilities. Another document calls for more forceful action in the region, alluding to Xi.
UN rights chief’s controversial visit to Xinjiang
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet visited China in late May for a six-day visit, which includes a halt in Xinjiang.
Bachelet has come under fire by rights groups and by Uighurs abroad, who say she has been sucked into a cleverly choreographed Communist Party tour, including talks with President Xi Jinping, which was later featured in state media on rights in China. was portrayed as a mutual support of the high ideals of