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China: Draconian repression of Muslims in Xinjiang amounts to crimes against humanity
Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region face
systematic state-organized mass imprisonment, torture and persecution amounting to crimes against humanity, Amnesty
International said as it launched a new report and campaign today.
In the 160-page report, ‘Like We Were Enemies in a War’: China’s Mass Internment, Torture, and Persecution of Muslims in
Xinjiang, Amnesty International’s Crisis Response team released dozens of new testimonies from former detainees
detailing the extreme measures taken by Chinese authorities since 2017 to essentially root out the religious traditions,
cultural practices and local languages of the region’s Muslim ethnic groups. Carried out under the guise of fighting
"terrorism", these crimes have targeted ethnic Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Hui, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and Tajiks.
Chinese authorities have built one of the world’s most sophisticated surveillance systems and a vast network of hundreds
of grim "transformation-through-education" centres - actually, internment camps - throughout Xinjiang. Torture and other
ill-treatment is systematic in the camps and every aspect of daily life is regimented in an effort to forcibly instil a
secular, homogeneous Chinese nation and Communist party ideals.
"The Chinese authorities have created a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
"Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities face crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations
that threaten to erase their religious and cultural identities.
"It should shock the conscience of humanity that massive numbers of people have been subjected to brainwashing, torture
and other degrading treatment in internment camps, while millions more live in fear amid a vast surveillance apparatus."
Mass imprisonment
The report documents how, since early 2017, huge numbers of men and women from predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in
Xinjiang have been arbitrarily detained. They include hundreds of thousands who have been sent to prisons in addition to
hundreds of thousands - perhaps even a million or more - who have been sent to internment camps.
All of the more than 50 former detainees Amnesty International interviewed were detained for what appears to be entirely
lawful conduct, such as possessing a religious-themed picture or communicating with someone abroad. A government cadre
who participated in mass arrests in late 2017 told the organization how police took people from their homes without
warning and detained them without any due process.
Most survivors who spoke to Amnesty International were first interrogated at police stations, where they had their
biometric and medical data recorded before being transferred to a camp. They were often interrogated in "tiger chairs" -
steel chairs with affixed leg irons and handcuffs that restrain the body in painful positions. Beatings, sleep
deprivation and overcrowding are rampant in the police stations, and detainees reported being hooded and shackled during
their interrogation and transfer.
From the moment they entered the prison-like internment camps, detainees’ lives were extraordinarily regimented. They
had no privacy or autonomy, and they faced harsh punishments - sometimes collectively with their cellmates - for trivial
disobedience. Internees were forbidden to speak freely to each other, and they were severely punished when they
responded to prison guards or other officials in their native tongues instead of Mandarin. Every activity in the
detainees’ daily routine was preordained and their behaviour was constantly monitored and evaluated.
One woman who was detained for having WhatsApp on her phone said: "[Every day] you get up at 5am and have to make your
bed, and it had to be perfect. Then there was a flag-raising ceremony and an ‘oath-taking’. Then you went to the canteen
for breakfast. Then to the classroom. Then lunch. Then to the classroom. Then dinner. Then another class. Then bed.
Every night two people had to be ‘on duty’ [monitoring the other cellmates] for two hours… There was not a minute left
for yourself. You are exhausted."
In the early weeks or months of internment, detainees are typically forced to either sit still or kneel in the same
position in their cell, in complete silence, for most of their waking hours. Following this, they generally undergo
forced "education", where they are indoctrinated to disavow Islam, forgo using their language and other cultural
practices, and study Mandarin Chinese language and Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
Other than being escorted under armed guard to and from canteens, classes or interrogation, detainees practically never
leave their cells and rarely see sunlight or have outdoor access or exercise.
Systematic torture
Every former detainee Amnesty International interviewed suffered torture or other ill-treatment.
This included the cumulative psychological effect of their daily dehumanization, as well as physical torture in the form
of beatings, electric shocks, solitary confinement, deprivation of food, water and sleep, exposure to extreme cold, and
the abusive use of restraints, including torture tools like tiger chairs. Some reported being restrained in a tiger
chair for 24 hours or more.
An older woman who was punished for defending her cellmate said she was taken to a small, dark, cold and windowless room
where she had her hands and feet cuffed and was forced to sit on an iron chair for three days straight.
Two former detainees said they had been forced to wear heavy shackles - in one case for an entire year. Others described
being shocked with electric batons or sprayed with pepper spray.
Some detainees reported being tortured multiple times, while others were forced to watch their cellmates being tortured.
Amnesty International learned of one case where a detainee is believed to have died as a result of being restrained in a
tiger chair, in front of his cellmates, for 72 hours, during which time he urinated and defecated on himself.
Surveillance state
Both inside and outside the camps, Xinjiang’s Muslims are among the most heavily surveilled populations in the world.
For at least several months after being released from a camp, all former internees are under near-constant electronic
and in-person surveillance, including invasive "homestays" by government cadres who monitor them and report "suspicious"
behaviour. This could be peaceful religious practices, the use of unauthorized communications software (such as VPNs or
WhatsApp), or purchasing an "unusual" amount of fuel or electricity.
Freedom of movement for released internees is also heavily restricted, with a massive number of security forces
patrolling the streets and operating thousands of checkpoints, euphemistically known as "convenience police stations".
Religious persecution
Muslims are not free to practice their religion in Xinjiang. Dozens of Muslim men and women told Amnesty International
the regional Chinese authorities showed extraordinary hostility towards their Islamic faith. Basic religious and
cultural practices have been deemed "extremist" and used as grounds for detention.
As a result, most people have stopped praying or showing any outward signs of observing Islam. This extends to dress,
grooming and even speech. "We couldn’t say ‘as-salamu-alaykum’ [a typical greeting in many Islamic cultures meaning
"peace be upon you"] …anymore," one man told Amnesty International. Qur’ans, prayer mats and other religious artifacts
have effectively been banned.
Former Chinese government cadres told Amnesty International how they barged into people’s homes to confiscate religious
items. "We told them to remove photos [of mosques] and put up [Chinese] flags," one said.
Those interviewed by Amnesty International described how mosques, shrines, gravesites, and other religious and cultural
sites have been systematically demolished or repurposed throughout Xinjiang.
Massive cover-up
The Chinese government has gone to extraordinary lengths to cover up its violations of international human rights law in
Xinjiang. Authorities threaten, detain and mistreat anyone who speaks out.
The fate of hundreds of thousands of detainees is not known. Many may remain in detention in the camps. Others have been
given long prison sentences - Chinese state data shows significant increases in prison sentences and satellite imagery
shows significant new prison construction in Xinjiang since 2017. Others have been transferred to situations of forced
or coerced labour.
"China must immediately dismantle the internment camps, release the people arbitrarily detained in them and in prisons,
and end the systematic attacks against Muslims in Xinjiang," said Agnès Callamard.
"The international community must speak out and act in unison to end this abomination, once and for all. The UN must
establish and urgently dispatch an independent investigative mechanism with a view to bringing those suspected of
responsibility for crimes under international law to account."
1. The report’s findings are based primarily on first-hand testimonies gathered from October 2019 to April 2021, as well
as analysis of satellite imagery and data and leaked government documents. Amnesty International interviewed over 50
former detainees, most of whom had never spoken out before, as well as many other people who had been to Xinjiang since
2017, more than 70 family members of people missing or detained, government informants, journalists and others.
2. As a result of security concerns, nearly all of these interviews were conducted on the condition that Amnesty
International refrain from publishing the interviewee’s name and/or any information that could be used to identify the
interviewee, the interviewee’s family, or anyone else who might be at risk if they were to be identified. Pseudonyms
have been used in all cases in the report.
3. Alongside the report, Amnesty International is launching a new campaign with case files of over 60 people from Muslim
minorities who are missing and believed to be detained in Xinjiang’s internment camps or prisons. The organization will
actively campaign for them, and all those arbitrarily detained in the camps or prisons, to be released.
4. Amnesty International collaborated with the renowned artist Molly Crabapple to create a series of 30 stunning
original illustrations depicting the harrowing scenes described in the former detainees’ testimonies. These can be seen
throughout the report and on the multimedia site: https://xinjiang.amnesty.org (the site will go live when the embargo lifts).
5. Amnesty International will hold a virtual press conference at 14:00 GMT on 10 June to present the report’s findings.
Please contact us for more details and an invitation.