China Uighurs: Detainees ‘free’ after ‘graduating’, official says

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Regional government chairman Shohrat Zakir told reporters those held in what Beijing says are “re-education camps” had now “graduated”.

It is not possible to independently verify Mr. Zakir’s claims.

Rights groups say the camps are actually high-security prisons, holding hundreds of thousands of Muslims.

Beijing has always denied this, despite the prevalence of high-security features, like watchtowers and razor wire, and leaked documents detailing how inmates at the so-called centers are locked up, indoctrinated and punished.

What is Beijing saying?
Mr. Zakir told reporters in the Chinese capital on Monday that everyone in the centers had completed their courses and – with the “help of the government”- had “realized stable employment [and] improved their quality of life”.

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In recent months, independent reports have suggested that some camp inmates are being released, only to face house arrest, other restrictions on their movement or forced labor in factories.

What could be behind the move?
Pressure has been increasing in Beijing in recent months.

A number of high-profile media reports based on leaks to the New York Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have shone a spotlight on what is happening at the network of centers, which are believed to hold more than a million people, mainly Uighur Muslims and other minorities.

Then last week, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to counter what it calls the “arbitrary detention, torture, and harassment” of the Uighurs, calling for “targeted sanctions” on members of the Chinese government – and names the Communist Party secretary in the Xinjiang autonomous region, Chen Quanguo.

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However, Mr. Zakir used the press conference to dismiss the numbers detained as “pure fabrication”, reiterating Beijing’s argument that the centers were needed to combat violent religious extremism.

Media caption”An electric baton to the back of the head” – a former inmate described conditions at a secret camp to the media “When the lives of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang were seriously threatened by terrorism, the US turned a deaf ear,” Mr. Zakir said at a press briefing.

“Now that Xinjiang society is steadily developing and people of all ethnicities are living and working in peace, the US feels uneasy, and attacks and smears Xinjiang.”

What’s going on in Xinjiang?
Reports of widespread detentions first began to emerge in 2018, when a UN human rights committee was told there were credible allegations that China had “turned the Uighur autonomous region into something that resembles a massive internment camp”.

Rights groups also say there’s growing evidence of oppressive surveillance against people living in the region.