The Chinese concentration camps, oops I mean "re-education" camps

Before you start to read this one, just a note that Uyghurs is pronounced Wee-Gurs.

This one definitely needs a trigger warning; there is extreme suffering in this article as well as racism. And the worst thing about it is, it’s still happening right now.

I have decided to explore this topic further and share it with the public because, like a few other things I discuss, it’s not widely known. And I also feel like Hitler, knowing that this is happening and not doing anything about it. However, I suppose there’s not much I can do except spread the word; yet, all our governments are aware of this, so they should be taking action, as it’s absolutely ridiculous that this is allowed to happen. But I guess this is just another Gaza/ Palestine scenario, where everyone knows but is still allowing it to happen. It's honestly quite sick that no one cares, and people are suffering in extreme ways.

China has created, what they term, re-education camps. These camps are mainly for the Uyghurs and mostly Muslim ethnic groups.  Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group originating from the general region of central and East Asia. They are one of China's 55 officially recognised ethnic minorities. There are around 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang.

Recent decades have seen a mass migration of Han Chinese (China's ethnic majority) into Xinjiang, allegedly arranged by the government to weaken the minority population there.

Xinjiang is a mostly desert region and produces about a fifth of the world's cotton. Human rights groups have voiced concerns that much of that cotton export is picked by forced labour, and in 2021, some Western brands removed Xinjiang cotton from their supply chains. Now, as someone who works in Fashion, this is actually something I wasn’t aware of, but there has been some recent news regarding Shein using cotton from this area and the US banning 36 Textile companies in China for using forced labour, refusing to work with or have anything to do with this area of China. This is a similar issue to Congo in Africa; no one in the textile industry will have anything to do with Congo because of the forced labour.

In December 2020, the BBC shared research that up to half a million people were being forced to pick cotton and that there is evidence that new factories have been built within the grounds of the re-education camps.

The BBC also revealed that the camps used armed officers who operated on a shoot-to-kill policy for anyone who tried to escape the re-education camps.

Several countries, including the US, UK, Canada and the Netherlands, have accused China of committing genocide - defined as the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

The statements track intelligences that say the Chinese are imprisoning Uyghurs in camps, and forcibly mass sterilising Uyghur women to reduce the population, whilst removing children from their current families, and trying to break down the cultural traditions of the groups.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has said China is committing "genocide and crimes against humanity".

The UK parliament acknowledged that China was committing a genocide in Xinjiang.

A UN human rights committee revealed it had credible information that China was detaining up to a million people in "counter-extremism centres" in Xinjiang.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute had evidence of more than 380 of these "re-education camps" in Xinjiang, which was a 40% increase on prior estimations.

Four hugely impactful countries know what is going on and are not doing anything to stop it.

Leaked documents known as the China Cables explained that the camps were proposed to operate as high-security prisons, with strict discipline and punishments.

Most people who are detained in the camps are not actually charged with any crimes and have no legal avenues to contest their imprisonment. However, it would seem that the detainees are targeted for a variety of other reasons, such as travelling to or contacting people from any of the twenty-six countries China considers sensitive, such as Turkey and Afghanistan; attending services at mosques; having more than three children; and sending texts containing Quranic verses. Often, their only crime is being Muslim, human rights groups say, adding that many Uyghurs have been labelled as extremists simply for practising their religion. 

For the people lucky enough to have escaped the camps, they have reported physical, mental and sexual torture. Women have spoken of mass rape and sexual abuse.

China's policies in Xinjiang feature plans for transformation through education of key groups, as recognised in the Kunes county justice system documents. These documents describe this process as washing brains, cleansing hearts, strengthening righteousness and eliminating evil.

Let's discuss what their idea of re-educating is…

Detainees are forced to pledge loyalty to the Chinese communist party and renounce Islam, as well as repeat admiration for communism and learn Mandarin. People have reported prison-like conditions, with cameras and microphones monitoring their every move and word.

When they first enter the camps, they are forced to watch propaganda programmes in their cells and are forced to memorise books centred around the CCP (Chinese communist party). They would be forced to do this for hours throughout the day. They were then tested on these books, and anyone who failed the tests was forced to wear three different colours of clothing, based on whether they had failed once, twice or three times and were subject to different levels of punishment. Types of punishment would include food deprivation and physical beatings, and torture.

Every part of a prisoner's life is monitored and controlled, even down to their bed position, their queue position and their classroom seat and it was prohibited for this to be changed.

Small daily activities such as getting up, roll call, washing, going to the toilet, organising and housekeeping, eating, studying, sleeping and closing the door were all behaviours that were implemented into their new normal routine, which required discipline to stay regimented so that they do not step out of line.

Detainees are only allowed to be released when they can demonstrate they have transformed their behaviour, beliefs and language. In order to do this, they have to show remorse and confess to their past activity as being illegal, dangerous and criminal.

It’s pretty harsh anyway, making people give up their religious beliefs that they feel so strongly about in this brainwashing kind of way, never mind the torture that came along with it. I have Muslim friends, and I think they would be absolutely heartbroken to have to give up their beliefs just to avoid torture, life imprisonment and possible death. I probably wouldn’t last two minutes in there because I rebel against anything I can. I imagine there are some strong-minded people in there like me who are going through some horrific physical abuse just because of their religion. It’s insanity to treat other human beings like this.

So, for anyone who is like me and they do rebel, show any sign of negative attitude or feelings and resistance is forced into much harsher education and transformation programmes until the desired results are achieved. So, basically, they torture them to within an inch of their life until they give up their religion and accept the CCP.

Ben Emmerson, a leading human rights lawyer and an adviser to the World Uyghur Congress, said the camps were trying to change people's identity. He said,

"It is very difficult to view that as anything other than a mass brainwashing scheme designed and directed at an entire ethnic community.

"It's a total transformation that is designed specifically to wipe the Muslim Uyghurs of Xinjiang, as a separate cultural group, off the face of the Earth."

As with most things in China, the prisoners are awarded points for their political transformation, study and training, and submission with correction.

The punishment-and-reward system can grant inmates privileges such as being allowed to contact family. They are only considered for release once four Communist Party committees have seen evidence that they have been transformed.

For anyone who doesn’t know, China runs on a point system as a way of controlling the masses. Meaning if they don’t do as they are told, they will have points deducted. These points determine everything. For example, they could be refused access to a train due to not having enough points. I have spent quite a lot of time in China through work, so I have seen the kind of things that happen out there. Hardly anyone commits a crime because their cameras are so good that they would be found instantly. They have a system where people with certain numbers in their car number plate can only go out on certain days in order to reduce traffic and congestion. If they do go out when they’re not supposed to, they will be fined.

When I tried to get a SIM card for my phone, I had to fill in a questionnaire, have my photo taken, and hand over my passport for recorded documentation. When I questioned why all of this was so necessary, they told me it was for my own safety and looked down on me for questioning it and proceeded to tell me that this is why the English are so bad, as if I was the problem. So clearly their government are doing a very good job of brainwashing their citizens. On the other hand, almost every window in China has bars on it to stop people from committing suicide. That doesn’t sound like a happy country to me. And let’s not forget the fact that they won’t let their people have any social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, and they are not allowed access to Google. Simply because they don’t want their people to educate themselves on the rest of the world and realise how badly they are being treated. If you haven’t already, please Google cage homes in Hong Kong. This is how people have to live with low credit scores.

Anyway, went off on a rant there; let’s get back to the concentration camps.

Satellite images show the expansion of these camps over the years, which has developed into quite a large area with multiple buildings. In 2015, the area was desolate and in 2018, the camps were in their early stages. In 2020, the camp had doubled in size.

The reason that China is doing this is because Chinese officials are worried that Uyghurs embrace radical and separatist views, and they regard the camps as a way of eradicating threats to China’s legal order, government, and residents. 

In the early 20th Century, the Uyghurs briefly declared independence for the region; however, this was quickly stopped by China's new Communist government in 1949.

Separatist groups grew in Xinjiang from the 1990s, sometimes showing acts of violence. This resulted in around 200 people dying in clashes in Xinjiang.

As I mentioned earlier about the cameras, Xinjiang is now covered by an unescapable network of surveillance, including ruthless police, physical checkpoints, and cameras that have remarkable face recognition. Reports from the organisation, Human Rights Watch, which offers support to defend the rights of people, have confirmed that the police are also using a mobile app to monitor people's behaviour, such as how much electricity they are using and how often they use their front door.

In 2017, President Xi Jinping issued an order saying all religions in China should be Chinese in orientation. This has led to additional restrictions. Activists say China is trying to eliminate Uyghur culture.

Police files in Xinjiang, dating pre-2019, disclose that Uyghurs are being punished for crimes that took place a long time ago and probably that they had nothing to do with. They are being targeted for listening to illegal lectures or not using their phones enough, which is seen as a way of dodging digital surveillance.

I mean, they literally can’t do anything right, can they?

Chinese officials say the suppression in Xinjiang is essential to avoid terrorism and find Islamist extremism, and the camps are an effective instrument for re-educating convicts in its fight against terrorism.

It insists that Uyghur radicals are conducting a violent movement for an independent state by conspiring with bombings, disruption and turbulent conflict, but China is accused of exaggerating the threat in order to justify repression of the Uyghurs.

China has been accused of targeting Islamic statues, banning Islamic practices and destroying mosques and tombs.

Of course, China denies all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

China's foreign ministry spokesman said Xinjiang enjoyed peace, stability and prosperity, and residents were living happy, fulfilled lives.

The most recent update I could find regarding the concentration camps was from April 2023, but I expect that this is still going on, as this has been happening since before 2018 and also given the most recent news updates from the fashion industry, it is evidently a huge problem. This update is on the human rights foundation website, where they have confirmed that on April 3^rd, they welcomed two camp survivors, Gulbahar Haitiwaji and Qelbinur Sidik. So, I’m unsure if I am allowed to quote directly from their website, but I did request; however, no one got back to me, so I have slightly reworded their account.

Gulbahar Haitiwaji was living in France when she was persuaded to return to China, where she spent two years in detention camps followed by six months of house arrest. She later wrote How I Survived a Chinese ‘Re-education’ Camp, the first memoir by a Uyghur woman to share her harrowing experience of surviving these camps.

Qelbinur Sidik, an ethnic Uzbek, was a teacher of Mandarin who was coerced into instructing at the camps, where she witnessed numerous human rights violations. Since their escape from China, both women have bravely spoken out about the abuse and atrocities they endured and witnessed in the camps.

Qelbinur Sidik said, I was compelled to teach at a detention facility, where approximately 7,000 men were held, with 13 or 14 prisoners per cell. They were forced to sleep on the floor and, during the six months I was there, none of them were allowed to shower. It’s just awful, denying someone basic human rights.

Prisoners had specific, limited times to use the toilet, and their meals consisted of steamed bread and soup.

They were shackled with handcuffs and chains around their ankles. To move outside their cells, they had to crawl because the doors were chained shut and couldn't open fully. They crawled to their classes and during breaks as well. The men were frequently taken for interrogations, and we could hear their screams as they were tortured. The methods of torture included electric batons, a helmet with electric shocks, electric gloves, and a device known as the tiger chair.

I wasn’t sure what a tiger chair was, so I looked into that. It's basically a metal chair used to detain a person while they are being interrogated. They are extremely painful and designed to restrain the body in an unnatural position, which then weakens the body after long periods of time.

Back to the story, she says…

I was later moved to a women's facility, which held nearly 10,000 women. Around 90% of them were between the ages of 17 and 40. All the women had their heads shaved and were dressed in grey uniforms with orange vests, each marked with an assigned number.

The women were repeatedly interrogated and raped by the police, which included using an electric baton on and inside their intimate parts. The women were given unknown medications and injections weekly, which resulted in them no longer menstruating or being able to breastfeed.

Also, women outside of the camps were forced into health centres to be sterilised. Including myself. Women are often raped in their own homes, and Chinese officials are paired with families to monitor them; these are known as their twin or relative. The Chinese government enforces a "five policies" approach for this: sharing meals together, sightseeing together, sleeping together, cooking together, and learning together.

Gulbahar says, I was born in East Turkestan. My husband moved to France in 2002, and in 2006, I joined him there with our two daughters. In 2016, I was persuaded to return to China, where I was imprisoned for nearly three years. During that time, I was forced to witness the ongoing genocide carried out by the Chinese government.

They first confiscated my passport and coerced me into signing false confessions, accusing me of causing “public disturbances.” They shackled my feet and placed me in a cell.

The conditions inside the camps were horrific. Cameras were everywhere, and every movement was closely monitored by the authorities. The women held there ranged in age from 17 to 70, all of them innocent. We were all shackled, forbidden to speak, and confined to cells with 30 to 40 other women. Each of us was assigned a number, and my number was No. 9.

Before every interrogation, they would forcefully bind our arms behind our backs with handcuffs, cover our heads with a black bag, and strap us into a tiger chair.

Each day, we were subjected to 11 hours of classes, where we were forced to study the Chinese language, Chinese law, and Chinese history. We also had to learn a new "red" song every week, and on Fridays, we were tested on what we had learned.

Before classes and meals, we had to express gratitude to three key entities: the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, and Xi Jinping. After classes and meals, we were required to do the same.

Twice a year, we were given vaccinations. After receiving these vaccines, our menstrual cycles stopped.

In 2018, I was transferred to a larger, newly built facility because the previous camp was overcrowded. Upon seeing the extent of the investment the Chinese government had made in the construction, I realised that this operation was part of a long-term plan, not a temporary one.

When I was finally allowed to contact my family in France for the first time, I was extensively coached by police officers for days on what I could and could not say. During the call, six officers observed me closely, and if my family asked a question that wasn’t part of the pre-approved script, the officers would write down the answers in a notebook, which I was then forced to repeat.

The human rights foundation then questioned the survivors to find out more from them. I have noted those questions below. I think it's good to know what has happened after and how other countries are responding to this.

Interviewer: The conditions inside these camps are horrifying. Do the guards seem completely brainwashed, or were any of them ever kind or resistant to the government's orders?

Qelbinur Sidik: Not in the least. There was no sign of compassion from them. They constantly monitored us, both within and outside the camps. Armed at all times, they always appeared ready for combat.

Gulbahar Haitiwaji: While we were in the camps, we had to pass through 11 iron security doors to enter or leave, with police watching us at every checkpoint.

Interview Question: How did you manage to leave China?
Qelbinur Sidik: My daughter resides in the Netherlands, and through her advocacy, I was able to leave in October 2019. My Uzbek background played a role in my ability to leave, but unfortunately, my Uyghur husband could not accompany me.

Since January 2000, I have been vocal about advocating for Uyghur rights. This activism led to continuous harassment and threats from Chinese police, often via WeChat. In 2021, around the time of the Uyghur Tribunal in London, the police coerced my husband into contacting me through WeChat, forcing him to insult me and pressure him into divorcing me.

Gulbahar Haitiwaji: Thanks to my daughter’s efforts abroad and the support of the French government, I was able to relocate to France in 2019. Before I left, a senior police officer warned me to remain silent about my experiences, threatening my family and relatives if I spoke out.

Once in France, I initially chose to share my story anonymously with media outlets and human rights organisations. Eventually, I decided to write a book about my experiences, which was published earlier this year. Since then, the Chinese government has labelled me a “terrorist,” and I have lost contact with my family in China.

Additional Insights:
Many individuals leaving China are required to sign documents pledging not to speak negatively about the government. These “guarantees” often include promises to remain silent or to return to China, with threats of repercussions for their families if these conditions are not met.

Uyghur Human Rights Project says: Raising awareness and maintaining pressure on the Chinese government are critical. Despite claims in 2019 that individuals in “re-education camps” had been released, many were instead transferred to forced labour factories or prisons under long-term sentences. Continuous advocacy and international pressure are essential for progress.

Policy Priorities:
Efforts to combat forced labour through legislation like the US Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA) are impactful but require broader international alignment. Providing refuge to vulnerable Uyghurs in regions where they risk deportation is another critical area. Additionally, there is an urgent need for mental health support and trauma recovery programs for Uyghur survivors and their families, especially widows and orphans struggling with the emotional toll of persecution.

What is crazy about their story is that they weren’t even in the country. They lured them back from France just to torture them. Why would they go out of their way like that?

And I think the most shocking thing about this is that China is committing crimes against humanity on a mass scale, and yet again, our governments don’t care and don’t do anything to stop it. It’s disgusting.

Some other stories I have been able to find come from Tursun, who was an imam and was imprisoned in 2001 for translating prayers from Arabic into Uyghur for his parishioners.

Tursun's initial two-year sentence in a "re-education through labour" camp turned into a 20-year torment at the hands of the state. He was released from the labour camp in 2002 but was continuously hassled by law enforcement, and often taken back to the camps for two-week periods of "study". Then in 2005, he was detained again, but this time sentenced to four years in prison. His family were given no notice from the court. They only received hand written notice from the police station when they went to enquire.

Tursun was released from prison in 2009, but then detained again in 2017 after the forceful politician Chen Quanguo was put in charge of Xinjiang and intensified the fight against the Uyghurs.

Tursun's family were also arrested, including anyone over the age of 14. Tursun's niece had learned that her mother had been sentenced to 13 years in prison, and her younger brother had also been sentenced to 5 years, but she had no idea what the charges were for. While her father is serving a life sentence for illegal preaching and separatism, her family has been torn apart by this. Tursun's niece describes her mother as a simple housewife, so it doesn’t bear to think about how long her uncle would have been sentenced for.

She says that the state had been targeting them for years; she says it's not only the leaders and preachers whom they want, it’s also the ones who practice Islam quietly and take pride in being Uyghur.

18 imams have been named and documented to have been detained and died during their custodial sentences; it is a regular occurrence for life in the camps.

Tursunay Ziawudun experienced nine months inside the camps. She described the guards as men who wore masks, they wore suits but not police uniforms, and she said after midnight they would come to the cells to select the women they wanted to take to what she termed the black room, knowing that there was no CCTV in this particular area.

Tursunay was taken for several nights. She speaks of her ordeal in shame and says she doesn’t even want the words to spill from her mouth, and that it will be the most unforgettable scar for her. She explains how she was tortured and then gang-raped on 3 occasions by 2 or 3 men at a time. She now lives in Kazakhstan in constant fear that she will be sent back there for revealing the extent of the sexual abuse that she encountered, fearing that she would be penalised even worse than she was before.

Gulzira Auelkhan, Another Kazakh woman who was imprisoned for 18 months in the camps, explains how she was forced to prepare the other women for the men, involving stripping them of their clothes and handcuffing them so they could not move by crossing their hands behind their heads. She would then leave them alone in the room, where later the men would enter. She would then have to stand silently outside the door, and after they were done, she would take the women to be showered and would have to clean the rooms. Some of these men were from outside the camp, and some were policemen, and they would pay money to be able to choose the prettier women.

Ziawudun described life in the camps with much detail. She says when you first enter the camps, there is not much to do, but it is compulsory to watch propaganda programmes in your prison cell, and you are forced to have your hair cut short. They would have to spend hours singing nationalistic Chinese songs and watching TV about the Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Zaiwudun was interrogated by the police about her husband, and if she resisted, she was thrown on the floor and kicked in the stomach with heavy steel-toe-capped boots to the point where she almost passed out from the pain. The camp doctor reported that she may have a blood clot from these beatings. Her cellmates tried to warn the guards that she was bleeding, and they passed this off by saying that it's normal for women to bleed.

At night Ziawudun and her cellmate were taken from their cell into separate rooms and presented to Chinese men in masks. She describes hearing her cellmate screaming and thought that they must be torturing her, when actually she was being raped.

The woman who transported Ziawudun from her cell to the room reported to the guards that Ziawudun was bleeding. The guards did not like this and responded by swearing at the woman and ordering her to be taken to the dark room. She said they had an electric stick, which was forced inside her genital region and tortured her with electric shocks.

After this experience, the woman was completely different, and she did not speak to anyone after that, as if in a disassociated trance. Ziawudun said that many people lost their minds in there.

She even said that some of the women who were taken from their cells at night were never returned. And the ones who did return were threatened not to tell anyone what had happened to them. She said it is designed to destroy everyone’s spirits.

The women have involuntary IUDs fitted, or even worse, are sterilised. Ziamudun said this included women as young as 20.

The lack of food given to the inmates makes them forget life outside the camp, and their only focus is on survival. Food is often withheld as a form of punishment for failing to accurately memorise the books about the Chinese president.

It's quite clear from numerous accounts of those who have been released from these camps and are willing to risk telling people their stories and experiences, that this is just downright inhumane and unacceptable behaviour. The guards are clearly taking advantage of women and misusing their positions of power for their own selfish benefits.

Whilst this is going on in the camps, outside in Xinjiang, it has been completely changed into a heavily surveilled state with cutting-edge technology that monitors everyone.

Xinjiang was also placed under what they term a grid management system. This means that villages are split into squares of around 500 people, each square has a police station, and the police heavily monitor with facial recognition cameras. Each person is required to have an ID card and to have their photos and fingerprints taken. There are police checkpoints every 100 yards to check every person, and their cell phones are monitored.

Muslim life has been mostly eradicated, and thousands of mosques have been demolished with poor excuses that they were unsafe. Halal food is becoming scarce, and the government is working hard to campaign against it. Even the families that are not in the camps are also being monitored and forced to practice Mandarin and study Chinese culture, and it is recorded if they dare to speak in Arabic. Communist party members often stay in Uyghur homes to monitor them closely.

Women outside of the camps are also being required to take forced sterilisation or IUDs, and if they do not comply, they are presented with the threat of being taken to the camps. Birth rates fell by 84% between 2015 to 2018 and declined further still in 2019. If they are lucky enough to conceive, they are not allowed to use traditional names like Mohammed and Medina and anyone who has too many children is again forced to have sterilisation.

Pretty shocking state of affairs. Unfortunately, there’s not much I can do, but I hope that this has spread the word to anyone who didn’t realise this was going on. The more people who know, and the more awareness on this matter, will hopefully impact China and, at the very least, get them to improve their conditions in the camps.

Bit of a heavy one, but thanks for reading, and as always, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.