CECC Annual Report 2022 | XINJIANG
The infos from CECC Annual Report 2022
XINJIANG
• Key findings from a cache of tens of thousands of files ob- tained from public security bureaus in two counties in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) included: the key role of senior Communist Party and central government offi- cials in carrying out the mass detention and other persecution of Turkic Muslims in the XUAR; the highly securitized nature of detention in the region’s camps and prisons; the high rate of imprisonment in Konasheher (Shufu) county in Kashgar pre- fecture, XUAR, as authorities increasingly sentenced Turkic Muslims to formal imprisonment; and arbitrary deprivation of liberty in camps and prisons.
• Reports published during the Commission’s 2022 reporting year indicated that XUAR officials increasingly sentenced many Turkic and Muslim individuals to long prison terms, sometimes following their detention in mass internment camps. According to international reporting and analysts’ re- view of satellite imagery, officials have converted many former mass internment camps into prisons or other types of formal detention facilities.
• International researchers and journalists found evidence that authorities continued to expand detention facilities, in- cluding mass internment camps. Based on research and anal- ysis of leaked official documents and satellite imagery, BuzzFeed News journalists estimated in July 2021 that au- thorities in the XUAR had enough space in detention facilities in the region, including prisons and mass internment camps, to detain more than one million people at the same time.
• Authorities in the XUAR maintained a system of forced labor that involved former mass internment camp detainees and other Turkic and Muslim individuals. In its annual report re- leased in February 2022, the International Labour Organiza- tion expressed ‘‘deep concern’’ over forced labor in the XUAR and asserted that the ‘‘extensive use of forced labor’’ involving Turkic and/or Muslim minorities in the region violated the Em- ployment Policy Convention of 1964.
• In September 2021, official media in the XUAR announced a new plan pairing Uyghur children with children from across the country, a move that observers believe is designed to con- trol Uyghurs’ lives and eliminate Uyghurs’ cultural identity.
Executive Summary
Called the ‘‘Pomegranate Flower Plan,’’ the initiative matched Uyghur toddlers and elementary school students from a village in Kashgar prefecture with predominantly Han Chinese chil- dren from other parts of China, in order to establish ‘‘kinship’’ ties between the children.
• During the 2022 Ramadan period, which lasted from April 1 to May 1, authorities in parts of Urumqi municipality and Kashgar and Hotan prefectures reportedly enforced quotas for local Muslims allowed to fast during the holiday, and required them to register with officials. Reports published this past year showed that authorities have sentenced Turkic Muslims in the XUAR, including members of the clergy, to lengthy prison terms.
• Turkic women who had been detained in mass internment camps in the XUAR provided evidence to the Uyghur Tribunal that many female detainees were raped in the camps. One former camp detainee testified that unmarried, divorced, and widowed women were raped in a camp where she was detained and that men paid to come to camps to rape female detainees.
XINJIANG
• Key findings from a cache of tens of thousands of files ob- tained from public security bureaus in two counties in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) included: the key role of senior Communist Party and central government offi- cials in carrying out the mass detention and other persecution of Turkic Muslims in the XUAR; the highly securitized nature of detention in the region’s camps and prisons; the high rate of imprisonment in Konasheher (Shufu) county in Kashgar pre- fecture, XUAR, as authorities increasingly sentenced Turkic Muslims to formal imprisonment; and arbitrary deprivation of liberty in camps and prisons.
• Reports published during the Commission’s 2022 reporting year indicated that XUAR officials increasingly sentenced many Turkic and Muslim individuals to long prison terms, sometimes following their detention in mass internment camps. According to international reporting and analysts’ re- view of satellite imagery, officials have converted many former mass internment camps into prisons or other types of formal detention facilities.
• International researchers and journalists found evidence that authorities continued to expand detention facilities, in- cluding mass internment camps. Based on research and anal- ysis of leaked official documents and satellite imagery, BuzzFeed News journalists estimated in July 2021 that au- thorities in the XUAR had enough space in detention facilities in the region, including prisons and mass internment camps, to detain more than one million people at the same time.
• Authorities in the XUAR maintained a system of forced labor that involved former mass internment camp detainees and other Turkic and Muslim individuals. In its annual report re- leased in February 2022, the International Labour Organiza- tion expressed ‘‘deep concern’’ over forced labor in the XUAR and asserted that the ‘‘extensive use of forced labor’’ involving Turkic and/or Muslim minorities in the region violated the Em- ployment Policy Convention of 1964.
• In September 2021, official media in the XUAR announced a new plan pairing Uyghur children with children from across the country, a move that observers believe is designed to con- trol Uyghurs’ lives and eliminate Uyghurs’ cultural identity.
Executive Summary
Called the ‘‘Pomegranate Flower Plan,’’ the initiative matched Uyghur toddlers and elementary school students from a village in Kashgar prefecture with predominantly Han Chinese chil- dren from other parts of China, in order to establish ‘‘kinship’’ ties between the children.
• During the 2022 Ramadan period, which lasted from April 1 to May 1, authorities in parts of Urumqi municipality and Kashgar and Hotan prefectures reportedly enforced quotas for local Muslims allowed to fast during the holiday, and required them to register with officials. Reports published this past year showed that authorities have sentenced Turkic Muslims in the XUAR, including members of the clergy, to lengthy prison terms.
• Turkic women who had been detained in mass internment camps in the XUAR provided evidence to the Uyghur Tribunal that many female detainees were raped in the camps. One former camp detainee testified that unmarried, divorced, and widowed women were raped in a camp where she was detained and that men paid to come to camps to rape female detainees.
