China's Persecution of the Uighurs

More than 1 million Uighurs have disappeared into China's internment camps in Xinjiang province, a DW investigation reveals.

In the Chinese government's vast network of re-education camps in Xinjiang province, the daily horror of internment was infused with monotony and boredom. Detainees were forced to endure countless hours of indoctrination and language classes, perched on small stools. In some facilities, they had to watch TV propaganda broadcasts praising President Xi Jinping for hours on end.

The slightest infraction, such as a whispered conversation, was met with swift and harsh punishment.

But among the many months spent locked up, some former detainees report that one day was different: The day when they were forced to pick one or several infractions from a list they were handed. In essence, the detainees had to retroactively choose the crimes for which they had been imprisoned, often for months, in most cases without being told why they had been detained in the first place.

"They threatened us: 'if you don't pick anything, that means you did not confess your crime. If you don't confess, you will stay here forever.' That's why we picked one crime," one female detainee who was imprisoned in March 2018 told DW.  After picking a crime from the list came a sham trial, in which the detainees had no legal representation and were convicted without evidence or due process of any kind. Detainees were also told that if they cooperated, the number of years they would be forced to spend in the camp might be reduced. 

All detainees DW spoke to agreed that the document they were pressured to sign was a numbered list of more than 70 alleged crimes. It seems to be based on another list detailing 75 acts that the Chinese authorities consider to constitute "extreme religious acts," which was circulated in Xinjiang around 2014, most likely in order for residents to identify suspicious behavior and report it to the police. It includes such acts as "inciting jihad," "advocating sharia law," "forcing women to wear a headscarf" or "distributing religious propaganda material," but also more innocuous acts such as suddenly giving up smoking or drinking. The fact that most acts deemed illegal were of a religious nature is a further indication that the Chinese authorities are targeting the religion and cultural practices of its Muslim minorities in an attempt to eradicate them, as activists have long claimed.

Xinjiang's residents are subjected to draconian methods of tracking and arrest. Facial recognition is carried out with high-tech surveillance cameras. Individual Uighur families are constantly monitored through a network of spies, repeated house visits, and collective interrogations — and any sign of religiosity can lead to imprisonment.