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China has built nearly 400 internment camps in the Xinjiang region, and construction by dozens has continued over the past two years, even as Chinese authorities said its “re-education” system was on the decline, an Australian think tank found. .
The network of camps in China’s far west, used to detain Uighurs and people from other Muslim minorities, includes 14 that are still under construction, according to the latest satellite images obtained by the Australian Institute for Strategic Policy.
In total, ASPI identified 380 detention centers established in the region since 2017, ranging from lower security re-education camps to fortified prisons.
That’s more than 100 more than previous research has uncovered, and investigators believe they have now identified most of the detention centers in the region.
“The evidence in this database shows that despite claims by Chinese officials about detainees graduating from camps, significant investment in the construction of new detention centers has continued throughout 2019 and 2020,” said the ASPI researcher Nathan Ruser.
The information, including the coordinates of the individual camps, has been made public in a database that can be accessed online, the Xinjiang Data Project.
The camps were identified using survivor accounts, other projects that track detention centers, and satellite images.
ASPI said nighttime images were particularly helpful, as they searched for newly lit areas outside of cities; These were often the sites of newly constructed detention centers, with daytime images giving a clear picture of the construction.
Many are also close to industrial parks; There have been widespread reports that inmates in some internment camps have been used as forced labor.
“The camps are also often located alongside factory complexes, which may suggest the nature of a facility and highlight the direct line between arbitrary detention in Xinjiang and forced labor,” the report says.
Beijing insists that there are no human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Chinese authorities initially denied the existence of internment camps, later describing them as vocational training and re-education programs that aim to alleviate poverty and threats against terrorism.
Last year, a senior official claimed that most of those held in camps had “returned to society.” However, China has not allowed journalists, human rights groups or diplomats independent access to the camps, and visitors to the region face heavy surveillance.
Most of the information about the camps and a broader government campaign against Muslim minorities in the region came from survivors who fled abroad, leaked Chinese government documents and satellite images confirming the location and existence of the camps.
People have been the target of such trivial “crimes” as possessing a Koran or abstaining from pork. The abuses reported include detailed arbitrary detentions, torture and medical negligence in detention camps, and coercive contraceptive methods.
Uighur families have been forced to have Han Chinese officials live in their homes as “relatives,” part of a comprehensive surveillance system, which also sees people being monitored online, and through a wide network of CCTV cameras. public places.
The ASPI project captures the large scale of both individual detention camps and the entire network of internment centers, mostly launched in the last half decade. A map created from the ASPI database shows an arc of camps in populated parts of the region, although the expert group noted that the growth rate in detention centers was slowing.
The largest documented camp in the region, Dabancheng, is located just outside the regional capital of Urumqi. New construction there over the course of 2019 spanned more than a kilometer, and in total it now has nearly 100 buildings.
A new detention center in the much smaller historic city on the Silk Road of Kashgar, opened in January this year, has 13 five-story residential buildings spread over 25 hectares (60 acres), surrounded by a 14-acre wall. meters high and a clock. -towers, the report said.
ASPI has divided the camps into four different categories, reflecting the levels of fortification and controls of the prisoners.
About half of the 60 facilities that have been recently expanded are higher security, suggesting a change in the nature of the central government’s campaign against minorities in Xinjiang.
The report also found around 70 camps that appear to have had reduced security controls, with internal fences and perimeter walls torn down. Eight may have been completely dismantled. These were mostly less secure facilities, according to the report.
The apparent shift in focus to higher security detention centers dovetails with reports and survivor testimony that “a significant number of detainees who have not shown satisfactory progress in political indoctrination camps have been transferred to higher security facilities. security, which were expanded to accommodate them, “the report. said.
