onsdag 7. november 2018

Uyghur crackdown in Xinjiang doubles security spending in one year


Spending on prisons and security-related construction in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang doubled between 2016 and 2017 new research has revealed, undermining China's denial of the existence of mass internment camps. Up to a million ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have reportedly been detained in the past year inside enormous "re-education camps" in the tightly-controlled province, where former detainees say they were forced to endure intensive "brainwashing" sessions.

The claims, which have been made by activists for months, were confirmed as "broadly accurate" by the UK government in October. After initially denying the reports vehemently at the United Nations, China later changed its story without explanation to claim the camps were "vocational training centers", and the "students" were happy to be there and free to leave on completing their courses.