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Analysis (/analysis)

Xinjiang Police Files:

Inside China's brutal
crackdown on Uyghur
Muslims
In-depth(/taxonomy/term/70147) 6 min read

Ali Abbas Ahmadi (/taxonomy/term/68497) | 09 June, 2022

In-depth: The Xinjiang Police Files are a cache of leaked documents from police
More In Analysis
servers in China. They give a first-hand account of the horrors Uyghur Muslims
face within Beijing's draconian and coercive internment camps. Analysis(/taxonomy/term/20)

(/#facebook) (/#twitter) (/#whatsapp) (/#reddit) (/#flipboard)

Will Erdogan be the (https://www.addtoany.com/share#ur
biggest winner in police-files-chinas-crackdown-uyghur
the Ukraine crisis? muslims&title=Xinjiang%20Police%20
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Rahile Omer, age 15. Anihan Hamit, age 73. Chimengul Imin, erdogan-be-
age 31. Muzepper Ali, age 16. Omer Yunis, age 67.  biggest-winner-
ukraine-crisis)
These are just five of the hundreds of thousands of people
Connor Echols
belonging to China’s Uyghur minority
(https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/uyghur-heartland-has- In-
(/taxonomy/term/70147)
worlds-highest-detention-rate-data) that have been brutally depth

incarcerated in detention camps by Chinese authorities. And

for the first time, we now know who some of them are. 

On 24 May, a trove of documents from 2018 was downloaded How Europe is

from hacked police servers in Xinjiang, western China. The offshoring its
Xinjiang Police Files, as they are being called, were published refugee
by a consortium of media houses, including the BBC responsibilities
(https://www.bbc.com/news/resources/idt-8df450b3-5d6d- (/analysis/how-
4ed8-bdcc-bd99137eadc3). europe-offshoring-
its-refugee-
They reveal the details behind China’s use of incarceration responsibilities)
camps and prisons at two separate but linked detention Tiara Sahar Ataii

centres for Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Analysis(/taxonomy/term/20)

The Xinjiang Police Files

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and over 10 sets of instructions to police forces. 
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It includes speeches by high-level officials, spreadsheets, and
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presentations that give us a first-hand account of police bomb
operations inside these camps. Damascus

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Airport?
The files were released at around the same time as a visit by (/analysis/syria-
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle insight-why-
Bachelet (https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/un-rights-envoy- did-israel-
defends-china-visit-amid-uyghur-criticism) to China. bomb-
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"China seems to consider the Uyghurs, a

Sisters who
distinct ethnic people with their own
'fled Saudi
culture, religion, and language, as a threat Arabia' found
to its authoritarian regime, and is dead in
subsequently moving to eradicate the
Uyghur people"
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who-fled-
saudi-arabia-
found-dead-
australia-flat)
Her visit has since been criticised by Uyghur rights groups
(https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/xinjiang-crackdown-under-
Russian spy
scrutiny-ahead-un-visit) around the world who say she has tried to
stumbled into a six-day Communist Party propaganda tour, infiltrate ICC,
including a meeting with President Xi Jinping in which state Netherlands
media suggested she supported China's vision of human
rights.
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The documents add to the mounting evidence that Chinese infiltrate-icc-
netherlands-
authorities are committing human rights abuses
says)
(https://english.alaraby.co.uk/analysis/uk-cotton-imports-
under-scrutiny-over-forced-uighur-labour) against the
Uyghurs and detail the horrific tactics used by authorities to Marcus
Rashford sues
oppress, imprison, torture, and dehumanise the Muslim
Egyptian
minority in what Beijing calls ‘re-education’ camps. student for
Key findings
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(/news/marcus-
rashford-sues-
An analysis of data (https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/china-
egyptian-
police-shoot-kill-disobedient-uyghurs-report) revealed that
student-racist-
23,000 residents in one region, or 12 percent of the adult abuse)
population, were incarcerated by China between 2017 and
2018.
Ella Al-
If extended to the entire population of Xinjiang, it would mean Shamahi and
more than 1.2 million Uyghurs and other people belonging to the curse of
Tutankhamun’s
the Turkic minorities have been incarcerated.

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(https://english.alaraby.co.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/infog
Xinjiang-Police-Files.jpg)
More than 12% of the Uyghur and ethnic minority adult population are believed to

Shoot to kill orders and shackled prisoners

One of the most significant findings in this report is that

policemen are instructed to use their weapons in case a
prisoner tries to escape a camp in Shufu, as highlighted in the
Response Plan and Procedure for Escape and Disturbance
Search
Prevention During Class Times paper from January 2018. 
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Prisoners being moved from one camp to another, according
to an instruction manual
(https://www.xinjiangpolicefiles.org/wp-
content/uploads/2022/05/Security-Plan-for-the-October-8th-
Transfer-of-Trainees-of-the-Industrial-City-Education-and-
Training-Center.pdf), must be handcuffed behind their backs,
shacked, and blindfolded.

These instructions match a widely shared YouTube video

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGYoeJ5U7cQ) first
posted anonymously from 2018, according to the BBC, that
shows groups of prisoners handcuffed, shackled, and
blindfolded seated on the ground.

China denied the video was related to the camps at the time,
but this new evidence adds more credibility to the footage.

Many of the images showcase the routine brutality of China's security forces [X

2,884 images of detainees

The most heart-breaking part of the leak is the 2,884 images of

detainees. It is the first time we know the identities of many of
these Uyghur men, women and children who have been
incarcerated on the Chinese government’s orders.

For many families, it is also the first news they have heard
about their loved ones since they disappeared into the black
hole of the detention camp system of Xinjiang. 

Some of the oldest and youngest detainees incarcerated by the Chinese state and the age
[Xinjiang Police Files]

Muslim oppression

The leak offers more incontrovertible evidence that the

Uyghurs are being targeted at least in part because of their
Muslim identities.

Many people were imprisoned for growing beards or

practicing the recitation of the Quran, and the items
confiscated from inmates by authorities include prayer mats,
religious texts, headscarves, and prayer beads.
Uyghur civilians from each generation are present in the
Search
camps, from the elderly to children. The oldest person was 73, 
(/)
and the youngest was 15.

This points towards a policy of attacking “a whole generation

that has been transmitting cultural and spiritual knowledge,
and of children being put into boarding schools,” said Dr
Adrien Zenz, a German anthropologist who is the main
researcher behind the Xinjiang Police Files.

“It’s a whole program of assimilating an entire ethnic group.”

The items confiscated by Chinese authorities include prayer mats, headscarves, religious t
Police Files]

Direct involvement of Beijing

The documents point toward the direct involvement of the

Chinese government and Premier Xi Jinping in these gross
human rights abuses.

“It's very evident from the files, especially from a speech by

China’s Minister of Public Security held in June 2018 that Xi
Jinping himself and the central government is very aware of
the details of the mass internment,” said Zenz.

“It shows how closely the central government has been

involved in atrocity since the beginning.”

An image of a security drill at the internment camps [Xinjiang Polic

Reaction

“The Xinjiang Police Files show once again that China's brutal
persecution of the Uyghur people has nothing to do with
countering terrorism, as it claims, but is completely arbitrary
and is targeting Uyghurs for who they are, not for what they
do,” Koen Stoop of the World Uyghur Congress told The New
Arab.

“China seems to consider the Uyghurs, a distinct ethnic people

with their own culture, religion, and language, as a threat to its
authoritarian regime, and is subsequently moving to eradicate
the Uyghur people."

Beijing has consistently denied any wrongdoing against the

Uyghurs, instead claiming that the government is attempting
to ‘re-educate’ the Uyghur population to combat 'terrorism'
and 'poverty.’ The Chinese ambassador to the UK rejected the
Search
findings in the Xinjiang Police Files, and called them a 
(/)
"smearing campaign
(https://twitter.com/AmbZhengZeguang/status/152921707819
1968258)" against China. 

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield

@USAmbUN · Follow
United States government official

Horrified by the Xinjiang Police Files, which spotlight China's mass incarceration of
Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities.

@mbachelet and @UNHumanRights must take a hard look at these faces and press
Chinese officials for full, unfettered access – and answers.

BBC News (World) @BBCWorld

Detainee photos and ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy revealed in China hack

bbc.in/3Nt9Ne8

11:38 PM · May 24, 2022

336 Reply Share

Read 49 replies

However, rights groups and many countries, including the

United States, have accused China of perpetrating a genocide
against the Muslim minority.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-

Greenfield, said in a tweet
(https://twitter.com/USAmbUN/status/1529162422967320577)
that she was “Horrified by the Xinjiang Police Files, which
spotlight China's mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other
ethnic and religious minorities.” 

"[China's] endgame is clear. The Chinese

government wants to eliminate nearly
every single element of the Uyghur
identity - they want to make them
Chinese"

There are at least 380 suspected internment camps in the

Xinjiang region alone, according to a 2020 study by The
Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

For rights groups who have documented abuses against the

Uyghurs and urged governments to take action, there is no
longer much doubt about China’s motivations.

“[China’s] endgame is clear. The Chinese government wants to

eliminate nearly every single element of the Uyghur identity -
they want to make them Chinese,” Peter Irwin of the Uyghur
Human Rights Project told TNA.

“In many ways, I don't see how Uyghurs in the region will ever
go back to a time when expression was at least tolerated," he
added.

"That doesn't mean there's nothing we can be doing to repel

what the Chinese government is doing, but it will take a much
more collective approach that starts with governments
speaking up.”

Ali Abbas Ahmadi is a  journalist at The New Arab. Follow

him on Twitter: @AliAbbasAhmadi2
(https://twitter.com/AliAbbasAhmadi2)

Tags:
Uyghur Genocide (/taxonomy/term/70653) China (/taxonomy/term/13089)

Xi Jinping (/taxonomy/term/65031) Uyghur (/taxonomy/term/62811)

Xinjiang (/taxonomy/term/65033) human rights abuses (/taxonomy/term/27279)

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