New leaks — Uyghurs targeted for behaviors with no connection to ‘separatism’
A new leak of documents from the Chinese government provides further details of the Chinese government’s vast system of surveillance and detainment in Xinjiang. The “Karakax list” is the third major such leak of government documents.
Photo credit: Adrian Zenz on Twitter.
A new leak of documents from the Chinese government provides further details of the Chinese government’s vast system of surveillance and detainment in Xinjiang. The “Karakax list” is the third major such leak of government documents.
Like the two previous leaks, to the New York Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Karakax list confirms the culturally abusive nature of policing and detention in Xinjiang, and contradicts claims by Chinese authorities that the “re-education” facilities are targeted at rooting out “separatism” or “extremism.”
The new document shows 311 case files from Karakax (a.k.a. Qaraqash) County in southwestern Xinjiang, where 98% of the residents identify as Uyghur, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority. The Financial Times, one of more than a dozen outlets that was shown the paper ahead of its publication today, verified its authenticity and explains what it shows us (paywall):
Procurement documents, satellite imagery, interviews with former Karakax residents and on-the-ground reporting confirm that there are four “re-education” camps in the locations mentioned in the leaked files — and that they were expanded around early 2017. Identification numbers in the leaked document match online databases of detainees…
The purpose of the file appears to be to record judgments on whether an individual should remain in one of four camps in the county or be moved to another part of the system. In some entries, the word “agree” was written beside a judgment, suggesting the files were used by government officials to communicate and approve decisions.
The records appear to have been updated multiple times from early 2017 to early 2019. In some cases, the same people are listed repeatedly, showing a series of judgments, with the final verdict often being “graduation”…
The Karakax list’s most commonly cited reason for interning members of minority communities is violation of family planning policies — China’s strict rules governing the number of children each family can have.
Being a practicing Muslim is the second most common reason. Possession of “illegal” religious videos or books can result in imprisonment, as well as going on hajj — the pilgrimage to Mecca — wearing a veil or closing a restaurant during Ramadan.
The FT goes into more detail than most outlets, pointing out that “birth rates in Hotan, the region of southern Xinjiang that includes Karakax, have dropped steeply from more than 20 per 1,000 births in 2016 to under 9 per 1,000 in 2018, according to official data.” The FT also translates multiple individual case files and includes a full list of the reasons for internment, such as “being related to someone who is detained,” “owning ‘illegal’ books,” “donating money to a mosque,” or “calling someone overseas.”
The significance of the documents, according to one source quoted in the Wall Street Journal:
Abduweli Ayup, a Norway-based Uyghur activist who has been verifying names and details in the document, said it shows that a large proportion of the people were sent for re-education for reasons like having too many children or applying for a passport, rather than for extremism.
“This document is really important because it tells us the reality,” he said. “In the document, there are only three cases related to separatism.”
For more on the Karakax list, see this Twitter thread and academic paper by scholar Adrian Zenz, or these reports:
- China Uighurs: Detained for beards, veils and internet browsing / BBC
- How China tracked detainees and their families / NYT (porous paywall)
- China′s systematic tracking, arrests of Uighurs exposed in new Xinjiang leak / DW
Other recent reports related to Xinjiang, and Muslim minorities in China:
- Sanya Chams Muslim minority in Hainan: Eradicating an identity / Bitter Winter
- She escaped the nightmare of China’s brutal internment camps. Now she could be sent back. / BuzzFeed News
- Don’t label all Uighurs terrorists, Turkey tells China / AFP via Straits Times
—Lucas Niewenhuis
