Leaked Xinjiang Police Files reveal abuse of Uyghur Muslims inside China’s re-education camps

The Xinjiang Police Files reveal the harsh treatment meted out to Uyghur Muslims inside China’s internment camp system.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) released a report based on the to-date largest and most significant leak of internal documents from directly within Xinjiang police networks. The “Xinjiang Police Files” consists of tens of thousands of files containing extensive incriminating details from inside China’s internment camp system.

For the first time, the files provide researchers with thousands of images of detained Uyghurs, as well as photos of police guards wielding automatic weapons and handcuffing and shackling detainees during camp security drills. The files also contain unusually candid speeches reflecting the state of mind of leading officials. They show Xinjiang’s former Party Secretary Chen Quanguo’s impassioned demands to treat persons from ethnic groups like dangerous criminals, to prevent any camp escapes, and to readily open fire to stop escapees and to safeguard the camps outlining the extremes to which the state has gone to enforce stability maintenance goals.

A classified speech by China’s minister of public security, a leading central government official, directly states that Xi Jinping gave orders to provide Xinjiang’s overcrowded detention facilities with more security guards and funding, and to expand the region’s prison and internment system.

The files show that Beijing considers “over two million” Uyghurs to be impacted by “extremist” religious thought, and therefore potential targets for re-education. Police spreadsheets indicate that in 2018, over 12 per cent of the adult population of one majority-Uyghur county was in an internment facility.

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The Xinjiang Police Files prove that China’s so-called vocational training centers are really prisons,” said Amb. Andrew Bremberg, President and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Andrew Brember added, “These documents conclusively demonstrate that Beijing has been lying about its gross human rights violations in Xinjiang. The international community must take immediate and concrete action to hold China accountable for these atrocities.”