Leaked Chinese police photographs and documents show the human toll of Beijing’s treatment of its Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.
The data trove is being referred to as the Xinjiang police files. It dates back to 2018, and was passed on by hackers to US-based scholar and activist Dr. Adrian Zenz, who then shared it with international media earlier this year.
It includes thousands of photographs of detained people.
It also includes details of a shoot-to-kill policy for anyone who tries to escape.
The publication of the data trove comes as UN High commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, is visiting cities in the region.
The Chinese government is accused of detaining more than 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities as part of a years-long crackdown, which has been labeled by the United States and other western countries as a genocide.
Chinese authorities have been accused of mass detention. Researchers and campaigners say it goes beyond this, and accuse Chinese authorities of waging a campaign of forced labor, coerced and forced sterilization, and the destruction of Uyghur cultural heritage.
Chinese officials call the allegations “lies of the century,” and say that Beijing’s policy is concerned with counter-terrorism, vocational training and de-radicalization.
Zenz published an academic paper this week, explaining that the newly leaked files show how political paranoia with exaggerated threat perceptions led to a preemptive internment of large numbers of ordinary citizens.
The publication of the mass data leak comes as Bachelet embarks on a controversial trip to Xinjiang. The former Chilean president told a group of China-based diplomats this week that her trip was to promote, protect and respect human rights.
Bachelet is the first top UN human rights diplomat to visit China since 2005. Critics of China have expressed fears that authorities would organize a “Potemkin-style” tour for the human rights diplomat.
The United States and United Kingdom have both expressed skepticism over what could actually be achieved by the trip.
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