And they\u2019re only just beginning.<\/p>\n
Technically called \u201cConcentrated Education Transformation Centers\u201d \u2014 with one even named<\/a>, in a manner that would make George Orwell blush, as \u201cthe Loving Kindness School\u201d \u2014 the camps span Xinjiang, a region known to Uyghurs as East Turkestan. Unsurprisingly, Chinese authorities have revealed little information about the camps: how many people are being detained, what crimes they supposedly committed, and when, if ever, these camps will be dismantled.<\/p>\n The camps started appearing over the past few years, but details are scarce. Reporting on the region is tightly constricted, and Beijing has made a habit of arresting and disappearing the family members of American reporters who have attempted to cover the topic.<\/p>\n \u201cWe heard at the beginning of this year that more than one million Uyghurs are currently in the camps,\u201d Dolkun Isa, the president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, told ThinkProgress. \u201cBut it\u2019s already been six months, and we\u2019ve never heard of anyone being released\u2026 [There] may be 1.5 million, maybe 2 million, in the camps. We don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe world already promised \u2018never again\u2019 \u2014 but it\u2019s happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Given that there are approximately<\/a> 8 million Uyghurs in the region, that would mean over 10 percent \u2014 and potentially as many as 25 percent \u2014 of Xinjiang\u2019s Uyghurs are currently housed in these camps.<\/p>\n These camps have rapidly formed the backbone of China\u2019s broader \u201cassimilation\u201d effort: a set of policies aimed at banning Uyghurs\u2019 religious education, language, and broader culture.<\/p>\n Following a 2009 protest-turned-massacre<\/a> in Xinjiang, China\u2019s deadliest domestic event in decades, Beijing accelerated<\/a> its policy of forced assimilation \u2014 actions ranging from banning the teaching of the Uyghur language to barring certain Islamic names, all while installing one of the most stifling security regimes this side of North Korea<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2714<\/span><\/span><\/span>@Noahpinion<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n China has thrown a MILLION members of the Uyghur minority into concentration camps: https:\/\/<\/span>thediplomat.com\/2018\/05\/uyghurs-victims-of-21st-century-concentration-camps\/ <\/span>\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n More than a million Uyghurs are believed to be in Chinese \u201cre-education centers.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n thediplomat.com<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 231<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n 197 people are talking about this<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Xinjiang, now under the thumb of party chief Chen Quanguo \u2014 who had previously stamped any dissent<\/a> in Tibet \u2014 has become<\/a> \u201ca police state to rival North Korea, with a formalized racism on the order of South African apartheid,\u201d Rian Thum, an associate history professor at Loyola University, recently wrote.<\/p>\n One professor at Australian National University described<\/a> Xinjiang, an area approximately half the size of India, as the testing ground for China\u2019s looming \u201cneo-totalitarian\u201d model. And Adrian Zenz, a researcher with the European School of Culture and Theology, has estimated that the police density in Xinjiang has now likely surpassed<\/a> what was seen in late East Germany. <\/p>\n Concentrating in camps<\/b><\/p>\n While little has trickled out about these camps \u2014 AP reporters writing on the camps were detained<\/a> a few months ago by local police, accused of \u201cnot promot[ing] positive energy\u201d \u2014 the few pieces of available information paint a stark, dystopic image.<\/p>\n The prisoners are arbitrarily held, with no charge necessary and without any terms of release<\/a>. The camps themselves are often ramshackle constructs, recently built to house those arrested. And as Thum told ThinkProgress, Chinese authorities are still putting out contracts to build new camps. Isa added that authorities have even begun retrofitting schools to hold incarcerated Uyghurs.<\/p>\n \u2714<\/span><\/span><\/span>@melissakchan<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n There is so much news, but a reminder that the Chinese government has set up mass concentration camps to intern the Muslim minority group called Uighurs, in far western China. It is a crime against humanity.<\/p>\n 172<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n 141 people are talking about this<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The camps appear to be sparse. One account from a Uyghur student who had been studying in the U.S. \u2014 and who was imprisoned upon trying to return to Xinjiang \u2014 noted that his incarceration featured marching, chanting, and repeated viewing of \u201cre-education\u201d videos.<\/p>\n \u201cOne prisoner said that at 6 or 7 A.M. you get up and sit down,\u201d Isa told ThinkProgress. \u201cYou can\u2019t move, you can\u2019t run, you can\u2019t talk. You have to sit and self-criticize yourself\u2026 At lunch time you have bit of space, but then after lunch you sit, and you self-criticize again. It is psychological torture.\u201d<\/p>\n Fatalities, and worse<\/b><\/p>\n While China hasn\u2019t released any information internationally about its detention policies, Chinese authorities have had little compunction about imprisoning family members of those living abroad, and those who are critical of Beijing\u2019s dictatorship. Not only have family members<\/a> of American-based journalists languished in these camps<\/a>, but Isa\u2019s mother herself was detained over a year ago.<\/p>\n And this week, Isa learned that his mother, Ayhan Memet, had died<\/a> in one of the camps. She was 78 years old.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is very, very difficult to get any information about what is going on in the camps,\u201d Isa said. \u201cBut maybe I\u2019m one of the lucky ones, because I got the news about my mother\u2026 So many people, so many Uyghurs who live in exile, they don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n A report from Radio Free Asia last week noted that more than two dozen Uyghurs had already died in the camps. But those numbers come from just one county in Xinjiang<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single Uyghur abroad has relatives waiting for a slow death in these camps,\u201d wrote Mehmet Tohti<\/a>, a Toronto-based Uyghur human rights activist. <\/p>\n Easy call. Nearly a million Chinese minority people in concentration camps for being minorities. Sanction the relevant officials, bring attention to incarcerated #<\/span>Uyghur<\/span><\/a> in #<\/span>Xinjiang<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n
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Uyghurs: Victims of 21st Century Concentration Camps<\/a><\/h2>\n
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