China's brutal treatment of the Uighurs has been laid bare – the world must no longer look away

It is time for the international community – not just the usual suspects like the US and Germany – to come together and end this campaign of intolerance

Thanks to a new cache of classified Chinese government documents many of the gaps in our understanding of the nature of the mass internment of Uighurs have been filled. It paints a dire picture of the cold, calculating approach taken by high-level Chinese officials.

At least a million Uighurs are being held, with a number of international experts deeming the latest documents to be genuine. Most significant among the documents leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, is a secret directive, issued in November 2017 by a Communist Party committee in Xinjiang, that describes how officials should manage the camps. The document goes into detail about the importance of preventing escapes, the necessity of video surveillance “without blind spots”, prohibitions on contact with the outside world, and the importance of secrecy.

Also included in the documents are previously undisclosed intelligence briefings that describe the nature of the mass collection of data and its analysis by artificial intelligence as a means of selecting entire categories of Uighurs for detention. The release comes on the heels of leaks to the New York Times earlier this month of documents which reveal how demands from high-level officials, including President Xi Jinping, led to the creation of the internment camp system. The leaks also showed that Chinese officials acknowledged that their policies had separated parents from children on an enormous scale.

Taken together, the new information stands as the most clear source regarding the inner-workings of the camps as well as the motivations of Chinese officials in relation to the planning and implementation of the entire camp system as well as the Orwellian surveillance apparatus supporting it. The significance of the documents cannot be overstated. They are the last piece of the puzzle put together already by journalists, academics, researchers and activist groups in an effort to understand the details of one of the most intense campaigns of targeted persecution anywhere in the world.

Extensive, exhaustive reporting on the ground in Xinjiang (despite serious obstruction), in Kazakhstan (where many former detainees reside), through the exposure of construction and security bids (by researchers like Adrian Zenz), and by the Uighur diaspora, has helped fill out the picture. Most critically, though, is that the documents come straight from the Chinese government itself, signed by top officials who would then oversee implementation of the policies.

One might presume that there’s no denying left, but true to form, the Chinese Embassy in the UK already stated that the “so-called documents are pure fabrication and fake news,” despite confirmation of their authenticity by a number of experts as well as corroboration from former detainees. In the coming days, expect a more robust, if absurd, defence by Beijing. Expect the “fake news” refrain. Expect absolute denial of the evidence itself. Expect references to extremism, counter-terrorism, national sovereignty, interference in internal affairs. Expect all of it—we have no influence here.

It will be the response from the international community that will be critical.

There is no better time than now for governments to step forward and make known their objections. Collective action is possible when political cover is offered to those (rightly) fearing retribution from China. But it can’t just be the usual suspects like the United States or Germany this time. It will require the collective effort of those that haven’t spoken up yet, but also haven’t indicated support for China’s policies either.

Fence-sitters must now choose the side of basic respect for human rights—one not particularly controversial when we’re talking about the largest arbitrary detention of a single ethnic group since the Second World War. Aside from calls of concern from independent experts, the United Nations has taken a mostly hands-off approach, with worrying signals sent from its Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, that suggest the topic is not a significant concern—or at least one that doesn’t require public comment. Leaders like Guterres and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, should speak clearly and publicly.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation passed a resolution in March commending “the efforts of the People’s Republic of China in providing care to its Muslim citizens.” Given the OIC’s public claim to “safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world”, it’s time for its members to break from this stance and call for an end to China’s criminalisation of Islam at the very least. The world’s largest Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama—with up to 90 million members in Indonesia—said in October that it could not comment on the situation and that its team was “still collecting information.” Let’s ask them if they need anything more to make up their minds.

Given that Beijing will continue to evade and obfuscate no matter the evidence put forward, the international community must now exert a real cost on China for its behaviour. No such cost has yet been levied and this is why little has changed for Uyghurs on the ground. China will have to start to hurt for anything to change.

After nearly three years of mass detention and appalling abuses, China is now firmly on the ropes. It is now our collective responsibility to call for an immediate end to a campaign accurately likened to the worst injustices in modern history.

Peter Irwin is programmes manager for the World Uyghur Congress