The inner workings of a network of centres where at least one million mostly Muslim ethnic Uighurs are thought to be detained have been revealed in a cache of secret documents that show how China's government selects people for detention and how they are then controlled once inside. The classified documents were obtained and verified by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with other international media including the Associated Press and give the most significant insight yet into how the mass detention camps work.
The papers lay out the Chinese government's strategy to lock up minorities, most of whom are Muslims, to rewire their thoughts and even the language they speak. The documents stipulate watch towers, double-locked doors and video surveillance "to prevent escapes" and describe an elaborate scoring system that grades detainees on how well they speak the dominant Mandarin language, memorise ideology, and adhere to strict rules on everything, down to bathing and using the toilet.
"It's a completely Orwellian system of ethnic cleansing, where China is acting as big brother," human rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar told Al Jazeera. Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the United Kingdom, dismissed the papers as "pure fabrications".
Use of technology
The United Nations says at least one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in the camps that China describes as "vocational training centres" to stamp out "hardline groups" and give people new skills. The documents show how data and artificial intelligence are being used for social control. With the help of mass surveillance technology, computers were able to issue the names of tens of thousands of people for interrogation or detention in just one week, including university students and party officials. Experts say the documents spell out a vast system that targets, watches and grades entire ethnicities to forcibly assimilate them - especially Uighurs, a Turkic minority of about 10 million with its own language and culture.
"We have an unprecedented insight into what the Chinese government is really doing," said Adrian Zenz, a leading security expert in the far western region of Xinjiang.
China has struggled for decades to control Xinjiang, where hundreds of people, including Uighurs and Han Chinese, have died in violent attacks, reprisals and race riots. In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched what he called a "People's War on Terror" in response to attacks carried out by "radical" Uighur militants. In late 2016, the crackdown intensified dramatically when Xi named Chen Quanguo, a hardline official transferred from Tibet, as Xinjiang's new head.
Most of the documents were issued in 2017.