THE GUARDIAN
Xinjiang’s detention camps are not just China’s shame
The mass incarceration of Uighurs and other Muslims has largely been met with global indifference
An “A-list” comedian, well-known singers, scholars, pensioners and civil servants — the list of prisoners grows. As many as 1.5-million Uighurs and other Muslims are, or have been, held in camps in China’s Xinjiang region without charge or trial, a leading researcher believes. China has moved from denying the camps to describing them as vocational training centres, comparable to boarding schools. In the runup to last week’s meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, it invited diplomats from selected countries on tours and choreographed visits for a few journalists, who were greeted with people singing If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands. According to Beijing, these are students receiving free accommodation, skills training and lessons in Chinese language and law. This doesn’t explain the barbed wire, the purchases of stun guns or the accounts of political indoctrination, punishment for speaking anything but Mandarin, harsh conditions and abuses amounting in some...
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