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Uyghur Activists speak up about the Chinese internment camps



Muslims in the west of China are facing one of the worst examples of oppression and ethnic cleansing in the world today. East Turkestan, the home of the Muslim minority known as the Uyghurs, has seen the mass-internment of two million civilians who face physical and mental torture until they renounce their faith. The Chinese government calls these camps “re-education camps”.

These camps have multiplied exponentially in recent years with the appointment of a new Communist Party Secretary of Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo, whose previous appointment in Tibet was famous for its brutal security and surveillance policies. These tactics are now being implemented in East Turkestan.

Though East Turkestan is under Chinese control, Uyghurs tend to have a closer ethnic and cultural connection to other Turkic peoples in central Asia. This means that alongside religion, the re-education camps are aimed at wiping out the Uyghur language, dress and cultural practices entirely.

To achieve this, the Chinese government has created the world’s most extensive surveillance state. Facial recognition cameras, body scanners, mandatory apps, GPS tracking, and surveillance drones cover every inch of the region, and Chinese tech companies like Huawei use these government contracts to develop even more intrusive systems. A recent propaganda video released by the Chinese government shows the extent of this surveillance, with at least 5 cameras in a single classroom which was being touted for its simple teaching objectives.

Beyond simply assimilating the Uyghurs to become more like the Han Chinese majority, the Chinese government’s policies point to a larger agenda. East Turkestan is at the heart of China’s biggest global project, the Belt and Road initiative. This multi-billion dollar project spans the entire globe, and allows China to become an economic superpower in competition with the US. In order to achieve this though, they aim to completely dominate the region of East Turkestan, and wipe out the Uyghur people.

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