2-28-2019
A guard tower and barbed wire fences are seen around a political re-education camp in the XUAR's Atush city, Dec. 3, 2018.
Zulfukar Ali, a Uyghur activist living in exile in Turkey, recently told RFA’s Uyghur Service that he had suddenly been contacted via video chat by a relative in the XUAR’s Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture who was detained in one of the camps, after being cut off from communication with his family members for more than two years.
“She told me that she was released to her home for three days,” Ali said of his relative, who is among more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas that are believed to have been held in the XUAR’s network of camps since April 2017. “She said there were 20 people from each cell released and that they were taken from the camp in handcuffs with a black hood over their heads, which were only removed outside of their homes as they prepared to go inside.”
Ali said his relative--who displayed what he described as “scars” from beatings in detention--suggested she may have been allowed to return home because authorities “received notice of a foreign group visit,” noting that she had previously worked for the government and “understands under what circumstances people would be released.”
The following day, he was unable to speak with her and said he believes she was returned to the camp within 24 hours of her release. An official who answered the phone at the Kashgar prefectural government office confirmed that authorities had temporarily released at least three detainees from camps in his region since Feb. 12.
“There were some who were only released for a day to see their families, but there isn't anyone who was permanently freed,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They were escorted to their homes and left with their families for 24 hours, before being taken back. They call this a ‘24-hour home visit.’ That is all we know, we don't know anything else.” https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/releases-02282019144335.html
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At least five high-profile labor activists have reportedly been detained in China’s continuing crackdown on workers rights activism and advocacy. The campaign began with the detentions of protesting Shenzhen-based workers in July, a mass roundup of mostly student supporters in August, and more in November. China Labour Bulletin reports on the latest incidents: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2019/01/more-labor-activists-detained-advocates-confessions-used-to-intimidate/
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2-23-19 According to Xiao Qiang, director of the Counter-Power Lab at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Information, Xinjiang is a window on the future of China, a “frontline” test-bed for data-driven surveillance that could then be spread well beyond. Mr. Xiao wrote in the Journal of Democracy last month that China under President Xi Jinping is attempting to marshal the powers of artificial intelligence to process all kinds of surveillance data, including facial recognition, and systems that can monitor gender, clothing, gait and height of passersby, as well as voice recognition, and creating a DNA database.
After being asked by the New York Times about the use of its technology to build the DNA database, a Massachusetts company, Thermo Fisher, said it would no longer sell its equipment in Xinjiang. Congress is considering important legislation that would help expose and pressure others who enable China’s abuses. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/china-has-turned-xinjiang-into-a-zone-of-repression--and-a-frightening-window-into-the-future/2019/02/23/780092fe-353f-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html?utm_term=.45eb1ae34531
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“The successor to #Blackwater — owned by the brother of US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — has signed a deal to run a training centre in Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities have conducted a mass incarceration campaign against #Uighur Muslims.”
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