Southeast Asia Chinese warships return closer to Australian waters

[Jiangnan]

Date of Event: Feb 27, 2025

Source : https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9cQB8idxSc0

 

[Jiangnan]

 

[Jiangnan]

Patrol Australia first. Then patrol New Zealand. Then patrol Australia again.

We just want to know. How specialized is the Australian military?

 

[Jiangnan]

This is why the Chinese Navy must patrol Australia. Saving the world's innocent children from Australian soldier atrocities!

 

[Dogun18]

@Sharma Ji @Krishna with Flute @Bilal9 @Saif

 

[Krishna with Flute]

This is why the Chinese Navy must patrol Australia. Saving the world's innocent children from Australian soldier atrocities!

View attachment 14909

What about the China keeping one million Uyghurs put in concentration camps of China and Chinese 5 ft soldiers going to their house to slip with their women to change DNA? What about the disappearance of Uyghurs. That is why China is needed?

 

[Jiangnan]

What about the China keeping one million Uyghurs put in concentration camps of China and Chinese 5 ft soldiers going to their house to slip with their women to change DNA? What about the disappearance of Uyghurs. That is why China is needed?

150cm little Indians genocide millions of Sikhs and Muslims.

150cm little Indians support Israel's genocide of 3 million Palestinians.

150cm little Indians support Australia for killing Afghan children.

150cm little Indians Worldwide Assassination of Opposition.

150cm little Indians were severely hungry and malnourished, had no toilets, no running water, all because they had received the retribution of Allah.

This is why the Chinese kill Indians just like...

 

[Krishna with Flute]

150cm little Indians genocide millions of Sikhs and Muslims.

150cm little Indians support Israel's genocide of 3 million Palestinians.

150cm little Indians support Australia for killing Afghan children.

150cm little Indians Worldwide Assassination of Opposition.

150cm little Indians were severely hungry and malnourished, had no toilets, no running water, all because they had received the retribution of Allah.

This is why the Chinese kill Indians just like...

Was that taught to you in Xi's reeducation camps?

By the way mao killed 40 million cute Chinese in 4 pest campaign.

 

[Jiangnan]

Was that taught to you in Xi's reeducation camps?

By the way mao killed 40 million cute Chinese in 4 pest campaign.

no. This is the knowledge of our human world. Don't you know?

I don't know much about Mao. Because in that period. Mao spent 20 days massacre indian maggots.

BTW.

I hope Indian maggots can enjoy their sewer life.

 

[Jiangnan]

Was that taught to you in Xi's reeducation camps?

By the way mao killed 40 million cute Chinese in 4 pest campaign.

India and Australia support Israel's genocide of 3 million Palestinian people!

Why Indian Hindutva supporters back Israel on Gaza bombing

As Israel faces criticism for its bombing of Gaza, it has received support from India’s Hindutva supporters.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[Krishna with Flute]

India and Australia support Israel's genocide of 3 million Palestinian people!

Why Indian Hindutva supporters back Israel on Gaza bombing

As Israel faces criticism for its bombing of Gaza, it has received support from India’s Hindutva supporters.

www.aljazeera.com

Your source says 212 Palestinians killed. You made it to 3 millions. This is the reason why you guys are considered for Pizza delivery boys and anything batter. Reeducation camp education come in picture.

Redirect Notice

Who are the Uyghurs and why is China being accused of genocide?​

 

[Krishna with Flute]

China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang

Backgrounder

China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang​

More than a million Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in China’s Xinjiang region. The reeducation camps are just one part of the government’s crackdown on Uyghurs.

A Uyghur man works at his shop in Kashgar in the Xinjiang region. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Written By
Lindsay Maizland
Updated
Last updated September 22, 2022 11:30 am (EST)

Summary

• About eleven million Uyghurs—a mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group—live in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
• The Chinese government has imprisoned more than one million people since 2017 and subjected those not detained to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor, and forced sterilizations.
• The United States determined that China’s actions constitute genocide, while a UN report said they could amount to crimes against humanity.

Introduction​

The Chinese government has reportedly arbitrarily detained more than a million Muslims in reeducation camps since 2017. Most of the people who have been detained are Uyghur, a predominantly Turkic-speaking ethnic group primarily in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang. Beyond the detentions, Uyghurs in the region have been subjected to intense surveillance, forced labor, and involuntary sterilizations, among other rights abuses.

The United States and several other foreign governments have described China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide, while the UN human rights office said that the violations could constitute crimes against humanity. Chinese officials have said that they have not infringed on Uyghurs’ rights and claimed that they closed the reeducation camps in 2019. However, international journalists and researchers have documented an ongoing system of mass detention throughout the region using satellite images, individual testimonies, and leaked Chinese government documents.

Related

Religion in China
by CFR.org Editors

A More Strategic German Foreign Policy?
by Liana Fix and Caroline Kapp

When did mass detentions of Muslims start?​

An estimated eight hundred thousand to two million Uyghurs and other Muslims, including ethnic Kazakhs and Uzbeks, have been detained since 2017, according to international researchers and U.S. government officials [PDF]. The Chinese government calls the facilities “vocational education and training centers;” the most common terms used by international media organizations and researchers are reeducation camps, internment camps, and detention camps. Some activists describe them as concentration camps.

Outside of the camps, the eleven million Uyghurs living in Xinjiang—officially called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region—have continued to suffer from a decades-long crackdown by Chinese authorities.

Experts estimate that reeducation efforts started in Xinjiang in 2014 and were drastically expanded in 2017. Beginning that year, they documented the construction of new reeducation camps and expansion of existing facilities for mass detention. Reuters journalists, observing satellite imagery, found that thirty-nine of the camps almost tripled in size between April 2017 and August 2018; they covered a total area roughly the size of 140 soccer fields. Similarly, analyzing local and national budgets over the past few years, Germany-based Xinjiang expert Adrian Zenz found that construction spending on security-related facilities in Xinjiang increased by 20 billion yuan (around $2.96 billion) in 2017.

In late 2019, Xinjiang’s governor said that people detained in the reeducation camps had “graduated.” Journalists found that several camps were indeed closed. But the following year, researchers at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) identified [PDF] more than 380 suspected detention facilities using satellite images. They found that China refashioned some lower-security reeducation camps into formal detention centers or prisons; expanded existing detention centers; and constructed new, high-security detention centers throughout Xinjiang. (Chinese officials have said that ASPI is an anti-China tool funded by Australia and the United States.) Instead of detaining people in reeducation camps, authorities have increasingly used the formal justice system to imprison people for years. In 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that half a million people had been prosecuted since 2017, according to Xinjiang government figures. The Associated Press found that in one county, an estimated one in twenty-five people had been sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges, all of them Uyghurs.

Hundreds of Detention Sites Across Xinjiang

China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang

More than a million Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in China’s Xinjiang region. The reeducation camps are just one part of the government’s crackdown on Uyghurs.

www.cfr.org

 

[Jiangnan]

China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang

Backgrounder

China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang​

More than a million Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in China’s Xinjiang region. The reeducation camps are just one part of the government’s crackdown on Uyghurs.

A Uyghur man works at his shop in Kashgar in the Xinjiang region. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Written By
Lindsay Maizland
Updated
Last updated September 22, 2022 11:30 am (EST)

Summary

• About eleven million Uyghurs—a mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group—live in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
• The Chinese government has imprisoned more than one million people since 2017 and subjected those not detained to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor, and forced sterilizations.
• The United States determined that China’s actions constitute genocide, while a UN report said they could amount to crimes against humanity.

Introduction​

The Chinese government has reportedly arbitrarily detained more than a million Muslims in reeducation camps since 2017. Most of the people who have been detained are Uyghur, a predominantly Turkic-speaking ethnic group primarily in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang. Beyond the detentions, Uyghurs in the region have been subjected to intense surveillance, forced labor, and involuntary sterilizations, among other rights abuses.

The United States and several other foreign governments have described China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide, while the UN human rights office said that the violations could constitute crimes against humanity. Chinese officials have said that they have not infringed on Uyghurs’ rights and claimed that they closed the reeducation camps in 2019. However, international journalists and researchers have documented an ongoing system of mass detention throughout the region using satellite images, individual testimonies, and leaked Chinese government documents.

Related

Religion in China
by CFR.org Editors

A More Strategic German Foreign Policy?
by Liana Fix and Caroline Kapp

When did mass detentions of Muslims start?​

An estimated eight hundred thousand to two million Uyghurs and other Muslims, including ethnic Kazakhs and Uzbeks, have been detained since 2017, according to international researchers and U.S. government officials [PDF]. The Chinese government calls the facilities “vocational education and training centers;” the most common terms used by international media organizations and researchers are reeducation camps, internment camps, and detention camps. Some activists describe them as concentration camps.

Outside of the camps, the eleven million Uyghurs living in Xinjiang—officially called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region—have continued to suffer from a decades-long crackdown by Chinese authorities.


View attachment 14915
Experts estimate that reeducation efforts started in Xinjiang in 2014 and were drastically expanded in 2017. Beginning that year, they documented the construction of new reeducation camps and expansion of existing facilities for mass detention. Reuters journalists, observing satellite imagery, found that thirty-nine of the camps almost tripled in size between April 2017 and August 2018; they covered a total area roughly the size of 140 soccer fields. Similarly, analyzing local and national budgets over the past few years, Germany-based Xinjiang expert Adrian Zenz found that construction spending on security-related facilities in Xinjiang increased by 20 billion yuan (around $2.96 billion) in 2017.

In late 2019, Xinjiang’s governor said that people detained in the reeducation camps had “graduated.” Journalists found that several camps were indeed closed. But the following year, researchers at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) identified [PDF] more than 380 suspected detention facilities using satellite images. They found that China refashioned some lower-security reeducation camps into formal detention centers or prisons; expanded existing detention centers; and constructed new, high-security detention centers throughout Xinjiang. (Chinese officials have said that ASPI is an anti-China tool funded by Australia and the United States.) Instead of detaining people in reeducation camps, authorities have increasingly used the formal justice system to imprison people for years. In 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that half a million people had been prosecuted since 2017, according to Xinjiang government figures. The Associated Press found that in one county, an estimated one in twenty-five people had been sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges, all of them Uyghurs.

Hundreds of Detention Sites Across Xinjiang

China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang

More than a million Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in China’s Xinjiang region. The reeducation camps are just one part of the government’s crackdown on Uyghurs.

www.cfr.org

emmm..... So why does India support Israel's genocide against Palestine?

Why does India support Israel's massacre of Gaza children?

Why does India support Israel's bombing of Gaza hospitals?

Gaza: How the Israeli army besieged and attacked Nasser hospital | Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF ...

On the night of Feb. 14 to 15 2024, Nasser hospital, once the largest hospital in southern Gaza, was shelled by Israeli forces. The orthopaedic department was hit, killing one person and injuring eight others. After several weeks of intense fighting with Palestinian armed groups in Khan Younis...

www.doctorswithoutborders.ca

Why does India support Israel's bombing of Gaza schools？

Israel bombs another UN-run school in Gaza ‘without warning’, killing 20

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Strip.

www.aljazeera.com

Why did India genocide Sikhs

Why India Is Targeting Sikhs At Home and Around the World

At home and abroad the Modi government is targeting Sikhs, a continuation of a dark history in India.

time.com

last. Why do Uyghurs support the genocide actions of Israel and India?

 

[Jiangnan]

Your source says 212 Palestinians killed. You made it to 3 millions. This is the reason why you guys are considered for Pizza delivery boys and anything batter. Reeducation camp education come in picture.

Redirect Notice

Who are the Uyghurs and why is China being accused of genocide?​

We humans believe. Israel has besieged 3 million Palestinian people in Gaza. Cut off the water and electricity supply to these 3 million Palestinian people. And they indiscriminately bombed the hospitals and schools of these 3 million Palestinian people. This is a genocide of 3 million people.... Considering that Israel is a role model for Uyghurs. You should indeed receive re education.

Rebiya Kadeer: Example of Israel

 

[Krishna with Flute]

We humans believe. Israel has besieged 3 million Palestinian people in Gaza. Cut off the water and electricity supply to these 3 million Palestinian people. And they indiscriminately bombed the hospitals and schools of these 3 million Palestinian people. This is a genocide of 3 million people.... Considering that Israel is a role model for Uyghurs. You should indeed receive re education.

Rebiya Kadeer: Example of Israel

Mass Detention​

China has created a large system of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. Approximately one million Uyghurs have been imprisoned in detention centers, for reasons as simple as practicing their religion, having international contacts or communications, or attending a western university. The Chinese government has defended the camps as “vocational training centers” aimed at combating violent extremism. Leaked government documents reveal that the state is in fact targeting people based on religious observance, such as praying or growing a beard, as well as family background.

Chinese Persecution of the Uyghurs - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

 

[Krishna with Flute]

We humans believe. Israel has besieged 3 million Palestinian people in Gaza. Cut off the water and electricity supply to these 3 million Palestinian people. And they indiscriminately bombed the hospitals and schools of these 3 million Palestinian people. This is a genocide of 3 million people.... Considering that Israel is a role model for Uyghurs. You should indeed receive re education.

Rebiya Kadeer: Example of Israel

What Israel has done outside Israel, your rulers do it in your country? Who killed 40 million Chinese in 4 pest campaign.

 

[Jiangnan]

Mass Detention​

China has created a large system of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. Approximately one million Uyghurs have been imprisoned in detention centers, for reasons as simple as practicing their religion, having international contacts or communications, or attending a western university. The Chinese government has defended the camps as “vocational training centers” aimed at combating violent extremism. Leaked government documents reveal that the state is in fact targeting people based on religious observance, such as praying or growing a beard, as well as family background.

Chinese Persecution of the Uyghurs - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

When China burns Muslims like India. then. Let's talk about the persecution of Uyghurs who support Israel.

Expert warns of impending ‘genocide’ of Muslims in India

Gregory Stanton, who founded the Genocide Watch group, is sounding the alarm on violence against Muslims in India.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[Jiangnan]

What Israel has done outside Israel, your rulers do it in your country? Who killed 40 million Chinese in 4 pest campaign.

The West has the right to freely edit numbers. But Mao is better at cleaning Indian maggots.

 

[Krishna with Flute]

The West has the right to freely edit numbers. But Mao is better at cleaning Indian maggots.

View attachment 14952View attachment 14953View attachment 14954

China responsible for ‘serious human rights violations’ in Xinjiang province: UN human rights report​

OHCHR
High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet during her visit to China, in Ürümqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.
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31 August 2022 Human Rights
A long-awaited report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) into what China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has concluded that “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” have been committed.

The report published on Wednesday in the wake of the visit by UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet in May, said that “allegations of patterns of torture, or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.”
In a strongly-worded assessment at the end of the report, OHCHR said that the extent of arbitrary detentions against Uyghur and others, in context of “restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights, enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

‘Rigorous review’​

The UN rights office said that Wednesday’s report was “based on a rigorous review of documentary material currently available to the Office, with its credibility assessed in accordance with standard human rights methodology.

“Particular attention was given to the Government’s own laws, policies, data and statements. The Office also requested information and engaged in dialogue and technical exchanges with China throughout the process.”

Published on Ms. Bachelet’s final day of her four-year term in office, the report says that the violations have taken place in the context of the Chinese Government’s assertion that it is targeting terrorists among the Uyghur minority with a counter-extremism strategy that involves the use of so-called Vocational Educational and Training Centres (VETCs), or re-education camps.

'Interlocking patterns'​

OHCHR said that the Government policy in recent years in Xinjiang has “led to interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights.”

Even if the VETC system has as China says, “been reduced in scope or wound up”, said OHCHR, “the laws and policies that underpin it remain in place”, leading to an increased use of imprisonment.

The systems of arbitrary detention and related patterns of abuse since 2017, said OHCHR, “come against the backdrop of broader discrimination” against Uyghur and other minorities.

Violations of international law​

“This has included far-reaching, arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international laws and standards”, including restrictions on religious freedom and the rights to privacy and movement.

Furthermore, the report said that Chinese Government policies in the region have “transcended borders”, separating families, “severing” contacts, producing “patterns of intimidations and threats” against the wider Uyghur diaspora who have spoken out about conditions at home.

OHCHR said that the Chinese Government “holds the primary duty to ensure that all laws and policies are brought into compliance with international human rights law and to promptly investigate any allegations of human rights violations, to ensure accountability for perpetrators, and to provide redress to victims.”

Report recommendations​

Among the recommendations that the UN rights office makes in the report, is for the Government to take “prompt steps” to release all individuals arbitrarily imprisoned in XUAR, whether in camps or any other detention centre.

China should let families know the whereabouts of any individuals who have been detained, providing exact locations, and help to establish “safe channels of communication” and allow families to reunite, said the report.

The report calls on China to undertake a full legal review of its national security and counter-terrorism policies in XUAR, “to ensure their full compliance with binding international human rights law” and repeal any laws that fall short of international standards.

It also calls for a prompt Government investigation into allegations of human rights violations in camps and other detention facilities, “including allegations of torture, sexual violence, ill-treatment, forced medical treatment, as well as forced labour and reports of deaths in custody.”

Chinese rebuttal​

In a long and detailed response published along with the hard-hitting report, the Chinese Government said in conclusion, that authorities in the Xinjiang region operate on the principle that everyone is equal before the law, “and the accusation that its policy is ‘based on discrimination’ is groundless.”

China said that its counter-terrorism and “de-radicalization efforts” in the region, had been conducted according to “the rule of law” and by no means add up to “suppression of ethnic minorities.”

On the issue of the camps, Beijing responded that the VETCs are “learning facilities established in accordance with law intended for de-radicalization” and not “concentration camps”.

No ‘massive violation of rights’​

“The lawful rights and interests of workers of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are protected and there is no such thing as ‘forced labour’”, China’s statement said, adding that there had been no “massive violation of rights”.

The statement calls on the international community to be “clear-eyed about the truth” of its counter-terrorism campaign in the region, and “see through the clumsy performances and malicious motives of anti-China forces in the US and the West, who attempt to use Xinjiang to contain China.”

It calls instead, for the UN and other international organizations, to investigate “the human rights disasters caused, and numerous crimes committed, by the US and some other Western countries, both at home and abroad.”

Bachelet's May mission​

The human rights chief undertook her mission in May, at the invitation of the Chinese Government and visited XUAR to review the situation there.

During her mission, Ms. Bachelet spoke with a range of government officials, several civil society organisations, academics, and community and religious leaders. In addition, she met several organizations online ahead of the visit, on issues relating to Xinjiang province, Tibet, Hong Kong, and other parts of China.

At the end of her visit, while expressing concern over issues relating to Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, human rights defenders and labour rights, she praised China’s “tremendous achievements” in alleviating poverty, and eradicating extreme poverty, 10 years ahead of its target date.

A number of other developments in the country were welcomed by Ms. Bachelet, including legislation that improves protection for women’s rights, and work being done by NGOs to advance the rights of LGBTI people, people with disabilities, and older people.

The UN rights chief underscored the important role that China has to play, at a regional and multilateral level, and noted that everyone she met on her visit, from Government officials, civil society, academics, diplomats and others, demonstrated a sincere willingness to make progress on the promotion and protection of human rights for all.

Guterres underscores independence of human rights office​

In response to questions from correspondents at the regular Noon briefing in New York on Thursday, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, said Secretary-General António Guterres had read the OHCHR assessment, which “clearly identifies serious human rights violations in the Xinjiang region of China.”

Mr. Dujarric said the Secretary-General “very much hopes that the Government of China will take on board the recommendations put forward in the assessment”, while also noting that the report “also underscores the importance of the independence” of OHCHR.

In response to a question over what this spelt for future relations, Mr. Dujarric said the Secretary-General “values the system-wide cooperation between China and the United Nations on a whole host of issues. China is a very valuable partner, and we very much hope that that cooperation will continue,” and urged it was “important for everyone to see the Chinese response” to the detailed report.

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China responsible for ‘serious human rights violations’ in Xinjiang province: UN human rights report

A long-awaited report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) into what China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has concluded that “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” have been committed.

news.un.org

 

[Krishna with Flute]

When China burns Muslims like India. then. Let's talk about the persecution of Uyghurs who support Israel.

View attachment 14951

Expert warns of impending ‘genocide’ of Muslims in India

Gregory Stanton, who founded the Genocide Watch group, is sounding the alarm on violence against Muslims in India.

www.aljazeera.com

‘Border of Tears’: Interviewing Victims of China’s Xinjiang Prison Camps​

by Léa Polverini • February 26, 2025

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East Turkestan — or Xinjiang, as it is known in Chinese — is a border region where ethnic minorities are subjected to the Chinese regime’s stifling repression.

Subjected to arbitrary arrests and forced labor, sterilizations to torture, more than one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other minorities are estimated to have been locked up in so-called “re-education” camps and prisons in the region over the last decade, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

While China contends it is fighting ‘terrorists,’ to others it seems the objective is to annihilate any cultural and religious particularism which could be seen as an impediment to the ethnic purity component of the “Chinese dream.”

The United Nations has warned that what is happening in the region may amount to “crimes against humanity,” while others, including the US State Department, have gone further, labeling it a genocide in 2021, especially due to measures intended to reduce the number of children being born.

This repression is not confined to China, but takes on a transnational dimension: even beyond the country’s borders, Beijing persecutes those who have been designated as its political opponents. In Central Asia, the former Soviet republics, heavily economically dependent on their Eastern neighbor, are home to a pervasive interference that extends the repression.


China has built hundreds of detention centers in its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region along the eastern frontiers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, making those countries a common landing spot for refugees fleeing Chinese repression. Image: Screenshot, The Xinjiang Data Project, Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Winter Trip​

In the winter of 2023, I decided to go to Kazakhstan to document what was happening to survivors of the camps who had fled across the border. I went with my photojournalist colleague Robin Tutenges, and the support of Slate France, an online current affairs magazine. As Chinese territory itself would be impossible to access for an independent investigation into the subject, we needed to shift our attention to where many survivors were living in exile.

While much of the reporting on the camps is being done remotely — and focuses on the crimes committed against the predominant Uyghur population — it is still vital to go in the field, and to remember that this repression affects a number of minority groups across the region.

Ethnic Kazakhs — who have Chinese citizenship — are the second most impacted group by population, yet their hardships remain largely overlooked by both the international community and their own country.

We found that the region between China and Kazakhstan had become a border of tears, where many families mourn the loved ones who have never returned from the Chinese camps, and where the survivors of the camps who managed to make it across the border have carried with them the trauma of the experience.

The fieldwork and investigation were incredibly complicated since on-the-ground access remains extremely complex due to the close surveillance to which many witnesses are still subjected.
Many of them still fear for their lives, under the threat of another deportation. In fact, leaving the camps is rarely a liberation, but often the beginning of a new ordeal. Barely acknowledged as victims, even in some cases by their relatives, survivors must learn to live again, and are expected to return to a daily life where their traumas go unrecognized — and untreated. Kazakh authorities, bound to China through strong business partnerships, remain silent, and try to stifle the protests of the few local activists there are.

Our challenge was therefore to trace the story of this violence — and its evolution — by weaving individual portraits and testimonies with a geopolitical analysis of regional power balances. The fieldwork and investigation were incredibly complicated since on-the-ground access remains extremely complex due to the close surveillance to which many witnesses are still subjected. That same surveillance also puts them in great jeopardy.

Protecting Vulnerable Sources​

This investigation, first published on Slate.fr as a text-photo series, almost didn’t get published. The main reason: the accessibility of the sources. Because the repression in Xinjiang is still ongoing, a single wrong word can lead to deportation, imprisonment, or death for witnesses and their relatives if they are identified by Chinese or Kazakh intelligence.

In those conditions, most survivors are terrified to be acknowledged as such, and not likely to speak to journalists. Building a network of contacts within persecuted communities therefore requires a great deal of time, caution, and trust.

My colleague and I were already well anchored in various diasporas originating from East Turkestan — and this ultimately enabled us to find survivors.

We took time to assemble different networks of local and international researchers, activists, human rights defenders, and artists. The difficult part is unlocking the primary contact who will allow you to unlock another one, and another, and so on.

One of our most valuable resources was Atajurt Partiasy, an organization that has strong local roots and has helped many family members in their efforts to demand the release of their relatives. As such, Atajurt had already collected numerous testimonies from survivors.

But with investigations like these, security has to be a top priority. Most of the people who testified in this series of reports did so under full anonymity, because they often still had family members living in China who might be incarcerated if any unsolicited attention came to them, or they had family members already in camps or prison, who might never be released. The very few who agreed to speak openly did so because their family had already left China or they were desperately hoping that, by making their story public, they might help their loved ones, as media attention has, paradoxically, sometimes led to the release of prisoners.

An elderly Uyghur man and woman walk along a street in Yarkant near Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Many Uyghur refugees refuse to publicly speak out about their detention for fear of government repercussions for their relatives still in China. Image: Shutterstock
Our responsibility, then, was to find the right balance in what we could, and could not, reveal to ensure their safety, while knowing that we could never predict the Chinese government’s arbitrariness.

Each piece of sensitive information was discussed with interviewees, and we sometimes published less than they would have liked, considering that some sources might not necessarily be fully aware of the ramifications if things took a turn for the worse.

As Chinese and Kazakh intelligence agencies are extremely efficient, we had to take the usual precautions, encrypting all our devices and keeping as little information on us as possible, in case the authorities intervened. This meant not recording witnesses’ locations on maps, nor their contact details. Instead, we hid sensitive information on a single random piece of paper — very poorly written, and in approximative French — which could not be hacked. We also made sure our cellphones were always using VPN or airplane mode, never kept compromising photos, and always had some sightseeing-like footage saved just in case, while we’d also prepared our best dazed-tourist face for any interaction with authorities.

My job is not to force victims to talk about their traumas… My work is about gathering facts and making sense of them in a vivid story.
When it came to conducting interviews, I always told witnesses at the very beginning that if they felt uncomfortable with a question, they could just skip it and we would move on to something else or take a break. Above all, in our interviews we strived to not re-traumatize the victims.

I usually like to start and finish each interview with open-ended questions, which give witnesses space to broach the most sensitive or important subjects for them, without drawing attention to what I might imagine to be the worst part of their story. As far as scenes of torture are concerned, and there were many in this investigation, I usually waited for witnesses to mention them on their own before engaging on the subject, and asked them more about their feelings, fears and memories, than about the corpography of physical abuse, which is a way of returning agency to those who have been hurt.

Naturally, some people don’t spontaneously address these subjects. In this case, I asked if they had witnessed or heard about different types of violence that I listed, which could help us to approach the issue from a different angle, leaving the door open for them. Sexual violence is obviously the trickiest subject to raise. I strongly suspect that, in several cases, the survivors I’d spoken to had been victims of sexual violence, but were unable to talk about it, for various reasons — a husband present in the room, too much shame to bear, or the memory is just too painful.

But my job is not to force victims to talk about their traumas. Doctors can report that part to me, as can lawyers or researchers. My work is about gathering facts and making sense of them in a vivid story. I always have to keep in mind that when I leave a victim’s house, they’re left behind with their thoughts, and I have to make sure that these will be as minimally painful as possible.

Freelancers Without Money​

The other reason this investigation could have remained a mere wish is money. Funding is what allows stories to be told — but a lack of it often becomes a story killer, especially for freelancers. It took us several months to construct this project, and while a number of outlets expressed interest in the topic, not a single major French newspaper agreed to support it.

Ultimately, Slate.fr offered to finance it and gave us a wonderful platform to carry out the investigation, resulting in an eight-part, longread feature series. We conceived it as a narrative, starting with the situation in the Chinese camps, moving across the Kazakh border, and ending in Europe, and more specifically in France, where we turned the focus on the international community’s inaction.


Image: Screenshot, European Press Prize
The series won the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s 2023 Kurt Schork Freelance Award, the 2024 European Press Prize’s Distinguished Award, and was nominated for the 2023 Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for War Correspondents.

Strangely enough, several news outlets seemed much more interested afterwards, although of course, that was a little too late. Winning prizes is gratifying, yet it’s not sufficient for freelancers to continue the work started, especially on this type of highly demanding and subject matter terrain, where the outcome can never be guaranteed in advance.

This past winter, we decided to continue the investigation in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, an even more sensitive reporting environment. That journey was marked by many failures, until the Pulitzer Center decided to lend its financial support to this project. Its backing will enable us to publish a new chapter of this long history of China’s transnational repression of the East Turkestan ethnic minorities.

‘Border of Tears’: Interviewing Victims of China’s Xinjiang Prison Camps

This award-winning investigation into Xinjiang internment camp survivors was nearly silenced. Here are some lessons learned about keeping vulnerable sources safe and telling their stories.

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