Lily Kuo - Show no mercy': leaked documents reveal details of China's Xinjiang detentions
Hundreds of pages of
leaked internal government documents reveal how China’s mass detention of
Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang came from directives by Chinese
leader, Xi Jinping,
to “show absolutely no mercy” in the “struggle against terrorism, infiltration
and separatism”.
More than 400
pages of documents obtained by the New York Times show the government
was aware its campaign of mass internment would tear families apart and could
provoke backlash if it became widely known. Beijing has repeatedly
refuted criticisms of its crackdown
in the predominately Muslim region, which has seen more than 1 million
Uighurs, Kazakhs and other minorities sent to camps where they are often
subjected to political indoctrination. China has organised tours of the camps,
which it describes as voluntary “vocational training centres” intended to
provide “students” with job skills.
The documents, leaked
by a member of the Chinese political establishment who hoped to prevent Xi and
other leaders the ruling Chinese communist party from escaping responsibility,
contradict those claims. That person requested anonymity, according to the New
York Times. According to the
report, Xi first called for the crackdown in a series of private speeches given
to officials during and after a visit to Xinjiang in 2014,
weeks after Uighur militants had attacked a train station, stabbing and killing
31 people. “We must be as harsh
as them,” Xi said, adding, “and show absolutely no mercy.” In the speeches, Xi
did not explicitly order the creation of a large network of camps, but called
for the party to use the “organs of dictatorship” to deal with extremism....
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/17/show-no-mercy-leaked-documents-reveal-details-of-chinas-mass-xinjiang-detentions