The Chinese Communist Party's statements that the government is just sheltering members of the ethnic minority in schools have been thrown into doubt by leaked papers including data of detained Uyghurs and China's "re-education camps." An anonymous source hacked the data from police computer systems in western Xinjiang and passed them on to Dr. Adrian Zenz, a Xinjiang academic, who shared them with the BBC earlier this year. After months of investigation and validation, the BBC revealed the photographs this week, claiming they provide "important new insights into the imprisonment of the region's Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities."
The Stats
More than 5,000 images of Uyghurs — a people who live predominantly in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region — were stolen from the hacked papers between January and July 2018. At least 2,884 individuals represented in the images have been imprisoned, according to other sources.
Armed police are stationed outside all important buildings and in watchtowers at a jail near Kashgar, according to one set of stolen papers revealed by the BBC. Inside, officers with shields, batons, and handcuffs keep an eye on the classes.
Another collection of documents claims to reveal that if warning shots are disregarded, the policy for dealing with escapees is to "shoot them dead." According to the BBC story, "in the most crucial document in this area of the information, cops are advised to be prepared to fire the weapons in the case of an escape."
"The documents state that if the alarm is activated, the perimeter roads must be closed, the buildings must be locked down, and the camp's own armed police'strike group' must be dispatched. If the'student' continues to try to flee after a warning shot, the directive is clear: shoot them dead."
Victims
The leaked data reportedly include spreadsheets detailing "draconian" prison terms for Uyghurs guilty of displaying religious displays. Tursun Kadir, for example, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after growing a beard that was subsequently "forcefully plucked." Tursun Memetimin and Ashigul Turghun, for example, were imprisoned for attending "illegal religious talks."
Abdurahman Hasan, for example, is said to have not seen his wife or children since leaving Xinjiang in 2017. A photo of his wife was found in the hacked files, along with information indicating she was sentenced to 16 years in jail for "gathering a throng to undermine the social order."
According to the BBC, the data shows that this specific violation occurs frequently.
In an interview with the BBC, Hasan remarked, "You can see how her soul is destroyed." Another dad, Mahmutt Tohti, was aware that his son had been arrested, but was unaware that he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for "terrorist charges" until he came across the database. His ardent Islamic faith is the sole proof of his crime provided.
Cover-Up
The BBC story, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, is "the latest example of the anti-China forces' slander of Xinjiang." He explained, "It's simply the same trick they used to perform previously."
"The lies and stories they propagate can't fool the rest of the world, and they can't hide the truth that Xinjiang is peaceful and prosperous..."
According to estimates, between 1 million and 3 million Uyghur Muslims have been held in Xinjiang's internment camps. They are educated to be secular citizens who will never criticize the Communist Party, which is in power.
In 2019, China permitted journalists such as BBC reporter John Sudworth to visit Xinjiang province's "training education" institutions. The government claims that Muslim minorities are being held in "training education" camps to assist terrorists to get back on track.
"China used to deny the existence of these locations. But now we're getting a tour. The message is clear: these are not jails, but rather schools "Sudworth said. "This is what [the government] wants the rest of the world to witness, to show that these aren't detainees, but kids who are willingly being led away from extremism."
The Leak
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a consortium that has worked with 17 media partners, including the BBC and The Guardian, leaked papers known as "The China Cables" in 2019.
The documents were obtained through a chain of exiled Uyghurs, and prominent specialists confirmed their legitimacy, according to the ICIJ.
According to the ICIJ, the documents contained a set of secret directives issued as a guidebook for administering the detention camps by the region's senior security officer. A nine-page document addressed to authorities running the camps in 2017 by then-deputy-secretary of the Xinjiang Communist Party, Zhu Hailun, is included in the leak. According to the BBC, the document recommended that the detention centers be managed as high-security prisons.
The document reportedly instructs detention facility personnel to "enhance discipline and punishment of behavioral breaches," "place a high premium on remedial Mandarin courses," and "encourage remorse and confession."
Human Rights Watch's China director, Sophie Richardson, told the BBC in 2019 that prosecutors should utilize the leaked 2017 document. "This is actionable proof proving a grave breach of human rights," she stated. "I believe it's fair to say that everyone who is arrested is subjected to at least psychological torture since they have no idea how long they'll be there."
Shortly before leaving office last year, former President Donald Trump's administration categorized the Chinese government's crimes against Uyghurs as genocide. In reaction to what it called genocide, the Biden administration levied penalties on key Chinese leaders.
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