The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has leaked documents from the Communist Party proving the mass internment of Uighurs in Xinjiang Province.
Already last week, the New York Times published leaked documents that had shaken the Chinese government's line of defense. This had always claimed that they are indeed to camp, the members of the Muslim minority of the Uighurs but there voluntarily.
According to reports, the "China Cables" documents indicate that camp inmates are usually imprisoned for one year. There they should renounce their religion and instead adopt the ideology of the Communist Party. It is estimated that more than a million Uighurs are currently interned in northwestern China.
"There must be no outbreaks"
The documents contain a nine-page manual for the management of camps. It was drafted in 2018 by the Communist Party Political and Legal Affairs Commission in Xinjiang, reports said. More than 20 rules are listed under the title "Opinion on further strengthening and standardizing vocational skills training centers". Literally it says: "There must be no outbreaks." All rooms and corridors had to be closed off strictly. This would refute the Chinese leadership's claim that people would volunteer there.
Furthermore, the documents mention a surveillance database that would incorporate information from various sources: interrogation, surveillance software, as well as information from surveillance cameras that can be seen everywhere in Xinjiang. "The goal is to make the citizens of Xinjiang transparent citizens," the documents cite.
Read on SPIEGEL + a report from Xinjiang from SPIEGEL correspondent Bernhard Zand.
The China Cables report reports that the authorities arrested and detained a total of 15,638 Uighurs from Xinjiang in a single week in June 2017.
China has already responded to the release. The British embassy in London told the British "Guardian" that the documents were "pure forgery".
The papers were leaked to the ICIJ, according to "Süddeutsche Zeitung" by exiled Uighurs. The original source was apparently a person in Xingjiang who was unknown to journalists. Icij owns 17 media worldwide, including the BBC, the New York Post and the Guardian. In Germany, besides the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Norddeutsche and Westdeutscher Rundfunk were involved.