A new collection of photographs and documents of hacked Chinese police has been released that sheds light on the human cost of treating Beijing to its Uyghur minority in Xinjiang while UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet , visit cities in the region.
The database, known as Xinjiang Police Files and published by a media consortium, including the BBC, dates back to 2018, and hackers passed it on to Dr. Adrian Zenz, a U.S.-based scholar and activist. United, who shared it with the media earlier this year. It includes thousands of photographs of detainees and details a policy of shooting to kill for people trying to escape.
The ruling Communist Party is accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-flung region as part of a crackdown on the US and politicians in other Western countries for years. labeled “genocide.” In addition to the mass arrests, investigators and activists accuse Chinese authorities of campaigning for forced labor, forced sterilization, and destruction of Uyghur cultural heritage in Xinjiang.
Chinese officials and diplomats call the allegations “lies of the century” and insist that Beijing’s policy in Xinjiang is related to the fight against terrorism, de-radicalization and vocational training.
In a separate academic paper published Tuesday, Zenz wrote that the recently leaked files explained how political paranoia that promotes exaggerated perceptions of threat had led to the preventive internment of a large number of ordinary citizens. It was the target of Chinese sanctions last year.
In October, the Associated Press reported that Chinese authorities had curtailed many of the most controversial methods adopted in Xinjiang. “The panic that gripped the region a few years ago has eased considerably and a sense of normalcy is coming back in,” his report said.
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On Tuesday, China’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Zheng Zeguang, tweeted: famous rumor spreader, re-spreading misinformation about Xinjiang. “
Tuesday’s publication of the massive data leak coincided with Bachelet’s controversial trip to Xinjiang. The former Chilean president told a group of diplomats based in China on Monday that her trip was aimed at promoting, protecting and respecting human rights, according to Bloomberg News, citing sources who attended the online meeting only with invitation. She did not say it was an “investigation.”
Bachelet is the first UN human rights diplomat to visit China since 2005, and critics of the Beijing government have expressed fear that the authorities will organize what they called a “Potemkin-style tour.” she.
Both the United States and the United Kingdom have expressed skepticism about what could realistically be achieved in Bachelet’s journey. The British ambassador to China, Caroline Wilson, tweeted on Monday that she had “stressed the importance of free access to Xinjiang and private talks with its people,” in her call with the head of UN rights. .
UK Secretary of State Liz Truss said on Tuesday that the leaked files contained “shocking details of China’s human rights violations” against the Uighur Muslim population.
“We reiterate our long-standing expectation that China will grant the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights full and unlimited access to the region so that it can conduct a thorough assessment of the facts on the ground, and we are following your visit closely this week “, Truss. he said in a statement. “If such access is not possible, the visit will only serve to highlight China’s attempts to hide the truth of its actions in Xinjiang.”
Bachelet is scheduled to visit the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a six-day tour. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Bachelet on Monday that he hoped his trip would “clear up misinformation” about China’s human rights record.