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Inside China's 'thought transformation' camps - BBC News
"The US says China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Here's some of the most chilling evidence.
"New evidence of Uighur forced labour in China’s cotton industry - BBC News
"China expands mass labour program to Tibet, forcing farmers into factories"""
3,311,047 views Jun 18, 2019
BBC News
The BBC has been given rare access to the vast system of highly secure facilities thought
to be holding more than a million Muslims in China’s western region of Xinjiang.
Authorities there insist they are just training schools. But the BBC’s visit uncovers important
evidence about the nature of the system and the conditions for the people inside it.
The BBC's China Correspondent John Sudworth sent this report.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmId2ZP3h0c
Related: The Russians Fleeing Putin’s Wartime Crackdown
Resisters are leaving Russia because the country they worked to build
is disappearing—and the more people who leave, the faster it vanishes.
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Data Leak Provides a Look into China's Brutal Camp System
In recent years, the Chinese state has allegedly locked away a million Uyghurs in internment camps. The Xinjiang Police Files now attach names and faces to this brutal system, providing an unprecedented look behind the veil of secrecy.
By Alexander Epp, Christoph Giesen, Roman Höfner, Lina Moreno, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer,
Dawood Ohdah, Matthias Stahl, Achim Tack und Bernhard Zand
24.05.2022, 17.59 Uhr
The images from the camp refuse to fade from the mind’s eye – hours, days, even weeks after the folder has been clicked shut.
A gaunt prisoner, perhaps in his mid-50s, is holding out his bound hands to a woman wearing a white lab coat while a guard holding an angular truncheon stands behind him, a smile on his face. A young man is sitting in a "Tiger Chair,” a steel torture device in which the arms can be immobilized. Another photograph shows a prisoner naked from the waist up, his torso and back revealing clear signs of violence.
The next photo: A man, accompanied by guards, is walking down a prison hallway, past heavy doors and locks, his posture bent, his hands and legs bound. It is impossible to say how old he might be – his head is hidden beneath a black hood. Like all the other prisoners, he is wearing a reflective vest.
Armed with a wooden club: A policeman stands in front of a cell in the Tekes reeducation facility.
Foto: Xingjiang Police Files
A young man sitting with his hands bound in a so-called "Tiger Chair," a device which is used for
torture, according to Human Rights Watch. Foto: Xingjiang Police Files
Among the photos that are part of the leak are also images of people with clear signs of physical
abuse. Foto: Xingjiang Police Files
These men and women were not photographed in an official high-security prison, but rather in a reeducation camp in Tekes, in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where the vast majority of those locked up are Uyghurs. On paper, they are Chinese, a Muslim minority in the People’s Republic. But in their home region of Xinjiang, Chinese officials have built up a powerful system of surveillance in recent years that controls almost every aspect of their daily lives. Experts believe that more than a million Uyghurs have been locked away in reeducation camps. They are forced to learn communist songs and attend flag ceremonies. Canada, the Netherlands and the U.S. have classified the Chinese policies in Xinjiang as "genocide.” Chinese propaganda, by contrast, refers to the institutions as "free vocational training.”
The people in the camps? China says they are all there voluntarily. Human rights violations? Invented lies and disinformation. China has thus far denied access to the region to all independent human rights organizations from abroad. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has been demanding access to the area since 2018 – and she is finally being allowed to visit Xinjiang this week.
The only information about what really goes on in the camps has come from a handful of eyewitnesses who were able to first leave the camps and then leave China. Until now.
IMAGE - 100s of headshots
The images from Tekes are part of a new leak, called the Xinjiang Police Files – more than 10 gigabytes of Chinese government data, classified as "confidential” and "internal.” The leak includes thousands of photos of prisoners, secret speeches, instruction material used by security officials and seemingly endless lists of prisoner names. For apologists of this state-run detention system, it will become increasingly difficult to defend the camps.
[...]
The data was initially sent to the German anthropologist Adrian Zenz, who has published secret information about the camps in the past. According to Zenz, the information comes from an anonymous source, apparently a hacker who managed to penetrate the computer systems of Chinese security agencies. According to the anthropologist, the source placed no conditions on the use of the data and no payment was made.
[...]
The conclusion: The data is authentic. Disturbingly so. Carefully listed in Excel spreadsheets, row upon row, column upon column.
The data includes almost every single resident of the Konasheher region, located just south of the city of Kashgar. Hundreds of thousands of people are listed, complete with names, birthdates and ID numbers. More than 22,000 were interned in 2018 according to the Xinjiang Police Files, more than 12 percent of the adult population. And they were locked away for at least a year – in the best-case scenario, that is how long it takes to complete a reeducation program that started in 2017. Those the system fails to break must remain in detention for far longer.
[...]
The accusation: In January 2002, as a seven-year-old, he allegedly received illegal religious instruction from his father and in January 2004, he supposedly took lessons in Islam from another man. From 2016 to 2017, he used a VPN service on his mobile phone to circumvent internet censorship – as do hundreds of thousands of Chinese every single day in the rest of the country.
But in Xinjiang, police regularly stop people on the streets to check their smartphones, examine their data and ensure that they have an app installed that can determine if the user has watched any banned videos. Those who have an encrypted messenger like WhatsApp on their phone can expect to be thrown into one of the many camps.
The transformation of Xinjiang into a surveillance state is closely linked with Chen Quanguo, the former party head in the region who is still a member of the powerful Politburo in Beijing. From 2016 to 2021, the 66-year-old headed the administration in Xinjiang. Shortly after he arrived in the region, every resident was required to install the surveillance app on their smartphones. Men were no longer allowed to wear beards and meat markets were required to chain up the hatchets they use for butchering. QR codes are embedded in the blades of their knives.
Chen Quanguo, the former party head of the Xinjiang region, led the surveillance system there
from 2016 to 2021. Foto: Tyrone Siu/ REUTERS
A Uyghur shopkeeper in Kashgar, long seen as the cultural heart of Xinjiang. Foto: Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
A Chinese police officer monitoring a parade of 2,000 Uyghurs in Kashgar. The event was held
to honor 16 Chinese police officers who were killed in a purported terrorist attack.
Foto: Peter Parks / AFP
Before Chen was transferred to Xinjiang, he had been party secretary in Tibet from 2011. He ruled with an iron fist there as well. In Tibet, he sent tens of thousands of party members into the countryside, where they moved into villages, slept in the homes of Tibetan families and alongside monks. Monasteries founded party cells and began flying the Chinese flag.
There is no question that Chen has spent the last several years in Xinjiang establishing a police state. As in Tibet, he brought in party loyalists to live and sleep in the homes of Uyghur families and act as minders.
The Xinjiang Police Files reveal for the first time the brutality of the marching orders he has given his underlings. The leaked documents provide a look into the merciless mindset of the security authorities. In a speech in summer of 2018, the manuscript of which can be found in the data, Party Secretary Chen ordered his officials to constantly be on the alert, to continue pressing the fight against separatists, to strengthen the security of camps and prisons and to shoot all those who try to flee or who attempt to attack one of the detention centers. "First kill, then report,” was the message Chen drummed into his people.
Chen was similarly bellicose in a secret speech delivered in 2017. Every prisoner who even tries to take a few steps toward freedom is to be shot, he intoned. Should anything happen, security forces, he said, were to "shoot all the terrorists dead” so that not a single police officer of member of the public will be injured or killed.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. did not respond to a comprehensive list of questions regarding the Xinjing Police Files, instead sending a statement claiming that it is focused on combatting terrorism, radicalization and separatism in Xinjiang, and that it’s "not about human rights or religion.”
The guards are apparently armed accordingly. One PowerPoint from the Xinjiang Police Files that is marked as classified indicates that the security units in the Tekes camp use QBZ-95 assault rifles, the standard firearm issued to soldiers in the People’s Liberation Army.
Chen, though, has also mandated that significant force be used against normal citizens. Police, he ordered, are to arrest those returning from abroad "as soon as they are seen” and deal with them like "serious criminal offenders.” That means handcuffs, ankle chains...
https://www.spiegel.de/international/window-into-a-police-state-data-leak-provides-a-look-into-china-s-brutal-camp-system-a-b81a6538-369d-4511-ac94-9b11c28a1f5a
"The US says China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Here's some of the most chilling evidence.
"New evidence of Uighur forced labour in China’s cotton industry - BBC News
"China expands mass labour program to Tibet, forcing farmers into factories"""
3,311,047 views Jun 18, 2019
BBC News
The BBC has been given rare access to the vast system of highly secure facilities thought
to be holding more than a million Muslims in China’s western region of Xinjiang.
Authorities there insist they are just training schools. But the BBC’s visit uncovers important
evidence about the nature of the system and the conditions for the people inside it.
The BBC's China Correspondent John Sudworth sent this report.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmId2ZP3h0c
Related: The Russians Fleeing Putin’s Wartime Crackdown
Resisters are leaving Russia because the country they worked to build
is disappearing—and the more people who leave, the faster it vanishes.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168310779
Data Leak Provides a Look into China's Brutal Camp System
In recent years, the Chinese state has allegedly locked away a million Uyghurs in internment camps. The Xinjiang Police Files now attach names and faces to this brutal system, providing an unprecedented look behind the veil of secrecy.
By Alexander Epp, Christoph Giesen, Roman Höfner, Lina Moreno, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer,
Dawood Ohdah, Matthias Stahl, Achim Tack und Bernhard Zand
24.05.2022, 17.59 Uhr
The images from the camp refuse to fade from the mind’s eye – hours, days, even weeks after the folder has been clicked shut.
A gaunt prisoner, perhaps in his mid-50s, is holding out his bound hands to a woman wearing a white lab coat while a guard holding an angular truncheon stands behind him, a smile on his face. A young man is sitting in a "Tiger Chair,” a steel torture device in which the arms can be immobilized. Another photograph shows a prisoner naked from the waist up, his torso and back revealing clear signs of violence.
The next photo: A man, accompanied by guards, is walking down a prison hallway, past heavy doors and locks, his posture bent, his hands and legs bound. It is impossible to say how old he might be – his head is hidden beneath a black hood. Like all the other prisoners, he is wearing a reflective vest.
Armed with a wooden club: A policeman stands in front of a cell in the Tekes reeducation facility.
Foto: Xingjiang Police Files
A young man sitting with his hands bound in a so-called "Tiger Chair," a device which is used for
torture, according to Human Rights Watch. Foto: Xingjiang Police Files
Among the photos that are part of the leak are also images of people with clear signs of physical
abuse. Foto: Xingjiang Police Files
These men and women were not photographed in an official high-security prison, but rather in a reeducation camp in Tekes, in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where the vast majority of those locked up are Uyghurs. On paper, they are Chinese, a Muslim minority in the People’s Republic. But in their home region of Xinjiang, Chinese officials have built up a powerful system of surveillance in recent years that controls almost every aspect of their daily lives. Experts believe that more than a million Uyghurs have been locked away in reeducation camps. They are forced to learn communist songs and attend flag ceremonies. Canada, the Netherlands and the U.S. have classified the Chinese policies in Xinjiang as "genocide.” Chinese propaganda, by contrast, refers to the institutions as "free vocational training.”
The people in the camps? China says they are all there voluntarily. Human rights violations? Invented lies and disinformation. China has thus far denied access to the region to all independent human rights organizations from abroad. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has been demanding access to the area since 2018 – and she is finally being allowed to visit Xinjiang this week.
The only information about what really goes on in the camps has come from a handful of eyewitnesses who were able to first leave the camps and then leave China. Until now.
IMAGE - 100s of headshots
The images from Tekes are part of a new leak, called the Xinjiang Police Files – more than 10 gigabytes of Chinese government data, classified as "confidential” and "internal.” The leak includes thousands of photos of prisoners, secret speeches, instruction material used by security officials and seemingly endless lists of prisoner names. For apologists of this state-run detention system, it will become increasingly difficult to defend the camps.
[...]
The data was initially sent to the German anthropologist Adrian Zenz, who has published secret information about the camps in the past. According to Zenz, the information comes from an anonymous source, apparently a hacker who managed to penetrate the computer systems of Chinese security agencies. According to the anthropologist, the source placed no conditions on the use of the data and no payment was made.
[...]
The conclusion: The data is authentic. Disturbingly so. Carefully listed in Excel spreadsheets, row upon row, column upon column.
The data includes almost every single resident of the Konasheher region, located just south of the city of Kashgar. Hundreds of thousands of people are listed, complete with names, birthdates and ID numbers. More than 22,000 were interned in 2018 according to the Xinjiang Police Files, more than 12 percent of the adult population. And they were locked away for at least a year – in the best-case scenario, that is how long it takes to complete a reeducation program that started in 2017. Those the system fails to break must remain in detention for far longer.
[...]
The accusation: In January 2002, as a seven-year-old, he allegedly received illegal religious instruction from his father and in January 2004, he supposedly took lessons in Islam from another man. From 2016 to 2017, he used a VPN service on his mobile phone to circumvent internet censorship – as do hundreds of thousands of Chinese every single day in the rest of the country.
But in Xinjiang, police regularly stop people on the streets to check their smartphones, examine their data and ensure that they have an app installed that can determine if the user has watched any banned videos. Those who have an encrypted messenger like WhatsApp on their phone can expect to be thrown into one of the many camps.
The transformation of Xinjiang into a surveillance state is closely linked with Chen Quanguo, the former party head in the region who is still a member of the powerful Politburo in Beijing. From 2016 to 2021, the 66-year-old headed the administration in Xinjiang. Shortly after he arrived in the region, every resident was required to install the surveillance app on their smartphones. Men were no longer allowed to wear beards and meat markets were required to chain up the hatchets they use for butchering. QR codes are embedded in the blades of their knives.
Chen Quanguo, the former party head of the Xinjiang region, led the surveillance system there
from 2016 to 2021. Foto: Tyrone Siu/ REUTERS
A Uyghur shopkeeper in Kashgar, long seen as the cultural heart of Xinjiang. Foto: Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
A Chinese police officer monitoring a parade of 2,000 Uyghurs in Kashgar. The event was held
to honor 16 Chinese police officers who were killed in a purported terrorist attack.
Foto: Peter Parks / AFP
Before Chen was transferred to Xinjiang, he had been party secretary in Tibet from 2011. He ruled with an iron fist there as well. In Tibet, he sent tens of thousands of party members into the countryside, where they moved into villages, slept in the homes of Tibetan families and alongside monks. Monasteries founded party cells and began flying the Chinese flag.
There is no question that Chen has spent the last several years in Xinjiang establishing a police state. As in Tibet, he brought in party loyalists to live and sleep in the homes of Uyghur families and act as minders.
The Xinjiang Police Files reveal for the first time the brutality of the marching orders he has given his underlings. The leaked documents provide a look into the merciless mindset of the security authorities. In a speech in summer of 2018, the manuscript of which can be found in the data, Party Secretary Chen ordered his officials to constantly be on the alert, to continue pressing the fight against separatists, to strengthen the security of camps and prisons and to shoot all those who try to flee or who attempt to attack one of the detention centers. "First kill, then report,” was the message Chen drummed into his people.
Chen was similarly bellicose in a secret speech delivered in 2017. Every prisoner who even tries to take a few steps toward freedom is to be shot, he intoned. Should anything happen, security forces, he said, were to "shoot all the terrorists dead” so that not a single police officer of member of the public will be injured or killed.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. did not respond to a comprehensive list of questions regarding the Xinjing Police Files, instead sending a statement claiming that it is focused on combatting terrorism, radicalization and separatism in Xinjiang, and that it’s "not about human rights or religion.”
The guards are apparently armed accordingly. One PowerPoint from the Xinjiang Police Files that is marked as classified indicates that the security units in the Tekes camp use QBZ-95 assault rifles, the standard firearm issued to soldiers in the People’s Liberation Army.
Chen, though, has also mandated that significant force be used against normal citizens. Police, he ordered, are to arrest those returning from abroad "as soon as they are seen” and deal with them like "serious criminal offenders.” That means handcuffs, ankle chains...
https://www.spiegel.de/international/window-into-a-police-state-data-leak-provides-a-look-into-china-s-brutal-camp-system-a-b81a6538-369d-4511-ac94-9b11c28a1f5a
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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