What they saw

BuzzFeed News describes their methodology as “BuzzFeed News interviewed 28 former detainees from the camps in Xinjiang about their experiences. Most spoke through an interpreter. They are, in many ways, the lucky ones — they escaped the country to tell their tale. All of them said that when they were released, they were made to sign a written agreement not to disclose what happens inside. (None kept copies — most said they were afraid they would be searched at the border when they tried to leave China.) Many declined to use their names because, despite living abroad, they feared reprisals on their families. But they said they wanted to make the world aware of how they were treated.

“The stories about what detention is like in Xinjiang are remarkably consistent — from the point of arrest, where people are swept away in police cars, to the days, weeks, and months of abuse, deprivation, and routine humiliation inside the camps, to the moment of release for the very few who get out. They also offer insight into the structure of life inside, from the surveillance tools installed — even in restrooms — to the hierarchy of prisoners, who said they were divided into color-coded uniforms ¹⁾ based on their assumed threat to the state.”

“Their accounts also give clues into how China’s mass internment policy targeting its Muslim minorities in Xinjiang has evolved, partly in response to international pressure. Those who were detained earlier, particularly in 2017 and early 2018, were more likely to find themselves forced into repurposed government buildings like schoolhouses and retirement homes. Those who were detained later, from late 2018, were more likely to have seen factories being built, or even been forced to labor in them, for no pay ²⁾ but less oppressive detention.”

No corroboration provided. ³⁾

The use of inverted commas in statements from officials indicates scepticism or outright rejection of these explanations. No rationale for this scepticism is provided.

• In response to a list of questions for this article, the Chinese Consulate in New York said that “the basic principle of respecting and protecting human rights in accordance with China's Constitution and law is strictly observed in these centers to guarantee that the personal dignity of trainees is inviolable.”
• “The centers are run as boarding facilities ⁴⁾ and trainees can go home and ask for leave to tend to personal business. Trainees' right to use their own spoken and written languages is fully protected … the customs and habits of different ethnic groups are fully respected and protected,” the consulate added, saying that “trainees” are given halal food for free and that they can decide whether to “attend legitimate religious activities” when they go home.
• The government has said that “students” in the camps receive vocational training, learn the Chinese language, and become “deradicalized.” Former detainees say this means they were brainwashed with Communist Party propaganda and forced to labor for free in factories.
• State media reports have emphasized the classroom education that takes place in the camps, claiming that detainees are actually benefiting from their time there ⁵⁾.

• police interrogated her for hours
• a full medical check-up before being taken to the camps ⁶⁾
• samples of their blood and urine were collected
• answering questions on foreign travel, personal beliefs, and religious practices. ⁷⁾
• asked to sign some documents she couldn’t understand and press all 10 of her fingers on a pad of ink to make fingerprints. ⁸⁾
• taken to camps
• saw were the heavy iron doors of the compound, flanked by armed police
• recognized dogs “They looked like the ones the Germans had” ⁹⁾
• discard their belongings as well as shoelaces and belts — as is done in prisons to prevent suicide
• brought to separate room to put on camp uniforms
• walking through a passageway covered with netting and flanked by armed guards and their dogs
• “I recognized those dogs,” said one former detainee who declined to share his name. He used to watch TV documentaries about World War II, he said. “They looked like the ones the Germans had.” ¹⁰⁾
• lined up, took off our clothes to put on blue uniforms
• men and women together in the same room
• treated us like livestock
• take off my clothes in front of others
• divided into three categories, differentiated by uniform colors ¹¹⁾.
• blue, the majority of the people were considered the least threatening - accused of minor transgressions , like downloading banned apps to their phones or having traveled abroad ¹²⁾.
• Imams, religious people, and others considered subversive to the state were placed in the strictest group — and were usually shackled even inside the camp.
• There was also a mid-level group. ¹³⁾
• Asked 'Are you a practicing Muslim?', ‘Do you pray?’ ¹⁴⁾
• the police officers take phone ¹⁵⁾
• The blue-clad detainees had no interaction with people in the more “dangerous” groups, who were often housed in different sections or floors of buildings, or stayed in separate buildings altogether. But they could sometimes see them through the window, being marched outside the building, often with their hands cuffed. In Chinese, the groups were referred to as “ordinary regulation,” “strong regulation,” and “strict regulation” detainees. ¹⁶⁾
• having their long hair cut to chin length
• women were also barred from wearing traditional head coverings, as they are in all of Xinjiang.
• cutting hair
• no privacy
• constant surveillance
• periodically subject to interrogations, carefully documented by interrogators, resulted in detainees writing “self-criticism.” Those who could not read and write were given a document to sign.
• Camp officials observe detainees’ behavior during the day using cameras, and communicate with detainees over intercom
• Camps were made up of multiple buildings, including dorms, canteens, shower facilities, administrative buildings, and, in some cases, a building where visitors were hosted. ¹⁷⁾
• desperately crowded facilities
• dorm rooms stacked with bunk beds
• each detainee was given a small plastic stool
• forced to study Chinese textbooks
• if they moved their hands from their knees or slouched, they’d be yelled at through the intercom
• shared bathroom, showers infrequent, always cold
• small clinics within the camps
• detainees forced to stand watch in shifts over other inmates in their own rooms
• anyone in the room acted up — getting into arguments with each other, for example, or speaking Uighur or Kazakh instead of Chinese — those on watch could be punished as well.
• beaten, or, as happened more often to women, put into solitary confinement
• older men and women could not handle standing for many hours and struggled to keep watch
• so crowded and tense that arguments sometimes broke out among detainees — but these were punished severely
• beating ¹⁸⁾
• put a hood over my head
• Nursaule was never beaten ¹⁹⁾
• put a sack over her head
• took her to the solitary room
• ankles shackled together
• no window