{"id":4459,"date":"2018-11-14T19:20:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T19:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2018\/11\/14\/domestic-security-budgets-reveal-scope-chinas-actions-xinjiang\/"},"modified":"2018-11-14T19:20:17","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T19:20:17","slug":"domestic-security-budgets-reveal-scope-chinas-actions-xinjiang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/domestic-security-budgets-reveal-scope-chinas-actions-xinjiang\/","title":{"rendered":"Domestic Security Budgets Reveal Scope of China’s Actions in Xinjiang"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adrian Zenz<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In August 2018, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed its concern at reports the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had detained as many as a million members of Muslim ethnic minorities in extrajudicial re-education camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). At the same meeting, the PRC flatly denied the existence of \u201cre-education camps\u201d, with United Front Work Department official Hu Lianhe arguing<\/a> that \u201ccriminals involved only in minor offenses\u201d are assigned to \u201cvocational education and employment training centers to acquire employment skills and legal knowledge.\u201d Other officials, including Xinjiang governor Shohrat Zakir, subsequently echoed<\/a> his denial.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"featxinjiang\"<\/span><\/div>\n

Credit: CCTV<\/span><\/span>

Uighur students undergoing supposed “vocational training,” shown in a recent Chinese state TV broadcast.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the PRC government\u2019s own budgets appear to contradict these assertions. Xinjiang\u2019s budget figures do not reflect increased spending on vocational education in the XUAR as the region ramped up camp construction; nor do they reflect an increase in criminal cases handled by courts and prosecutors. Rather, they reflect patterns of spending consistent with the construction and operation of highly secure political re-education camps designed to imprison hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs with <\/span>minimal<\/span> due process.<\/span><\/p>\n

This article supports this conclusion through examination of official PRC budgetary figures, analyzing spending breakdowns at the regional, prefectural, and county levels to produce findings of unprecedented granularity. Among its most striking conclusions:<\/span><\/p>\n