The Chinese Government has detained at least 800,000 and possibly more than 2 million Uyghurs in “reeducation centres” marking the largest mass internment of an ethnic-religious minority group since World War II. (1)

Let me say it again in case you didn’t catch that: IT IS THE LARGEST MASS INTERNMENT OF AN ETHNIC RELIGIOUS MINORITY GROUP SINCE WOLRD WAR II WHICH ENDED IN 1945. In such re-education centres, Uyghurs are forced to undergo psychological indoctrination programs, such as (2)

studying communist propaganda and giving thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Chinese officials have also reportedly used water boarding and other forms of torture, including sexual abuse, as part of the indoctrination process. Uyghurs inside and outside the camps are (3)

exploited for cheap labour. Chinese-made face masks are being sold in the United States and other countries which where made in factories that relied on Uyghur labour. In addition to this, Uyghur women are subjected to mass sterilisation, forcing them to take birth control (4)

or have abortions and putting them in camps if they resist. Such inhumane acts of torture and violence meet the United Nations definition of genocide yet there’s still been no intervention to save the Uyghurs. The Chinese Government claims that the camps are only vocational (5)

and are training centres, and that they’re teaching people job skills. In an attempt to justify the oppression in Xinjiang, they claim it’s to clamp down on terrorism and extremism emanating from the Uyghur separation movement. (6)

Xinjiang, where about 11 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities live, is an autonomous region in China’s northwest that borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia and has been under Chinese control since 1949. Uyghurs speak their own language and most follow (7)

Sunni practises. Once situated along the ancient Silk Road trading route, Xinjiang is oil- and resource-rich. As it developed along with the rest of China, the region attracted more Han Chinese, a migration encouraged by the Chinese government. The demographic shift inflamed (8)

ethnic tensions. In 2009, for example, riots broke out in Urumqi, the capital of Xijiang, after Uyghurs protested their treatment by the government. About 200 killed and hundreds were injured. The Chinese government blamed the protests on violent separatist groups, (9)

a tactic it would continue to use against the Uyghurs and other religions and ethnic minorities across China. The Chinese governments tries to justify its clampdown of the Uyghurs and Muslim minorities by saying its trying to eradicate extremism and separatist groups. (10)

However there’s little evidence of any cohesive separatist movement - with jihadist roots or otherwise - that could challenge the Chinese government. China’s crackdown on the Uighurs was initially part of a policy of “de-extremification.” Under this policy, Beijing imposed (11)

draconian restrictions in Xinjiang intended to erase the Uighurs’ Islamic religious and cultural identity. According to research by Adrian Zenz, a leading scholar on China’s policies toward the Uyghurs, Chinese officials began using dedicated camps in Xijiang around 2014, (12)

around the same time that China blamed a series of terrorist attacks on radical Uyghur separatists. Security checkpoints where residents must scan identification cards were set up at train stations and on roads into and out of towns. (13)

Authorities have used facial recognition technology to track residents’ movements. Chinese officials also reportedly took blood and DNA samples, framed as mandatory check-ups. Police confiscate phones to download the information contained on them to scan through later (14)

or track Uyghurs through their cellphones. Police have also confiscated passports to prevent Uighurs from traveling abroad. Uighurs abroad say their families are targeted by Chinese officials, part of a pressure campaign to keep the diaspora from speaking out. (15)

There has been a ban on certain Muslim names for babies and another on long beards and veils. The government tried to promote drinking and smoking because people who didn’t drink or smoke - Muslims - were deemed suspicious. Chinese men were being sent to check in on and (16)

sleep with Uighur women, including those whose husbands were detained in the camps. The “Pair Up and Become Family” program, as it is designed to “promote ethnic unity.” From the “Re-education camps” alone have as many as 3 million people disappeared. (17)

At first, the Chinese government denied these camps even existed. But since they’ve stopped pretending that camps aren’t real, the government has cast them as both lawful and innocuous and in October 2018, Chinese officials effectively legalised the “education camps” for (18)

the stated goal of eradicating extremism. A 2018 report by Agence France-Presse described camps in which thousands of guards carry spiked clubs, tear gas, and stun guns to surveil detainees, who are held in buildings surrounded by razor wire and infrared cameras. (19)

AFP journalists also reviewed public documents showing that government agencies overseeing the camps purchased 2,768 police batons, 550 electric cattle prods, 1,367 pairs of handcuffs, and 2,792 cans of pepper spray. (20)

An investigation by Reuters in 2018 found that, according to satellite imagery, 39 suspected camps almost tripled in size between April 2017 and August 2018. “Collectively, the built-up parts in these 39 facilities now cover an area roughly the size of 140 soccer fields.” (21)