CHINA-INTERNAL: POLITICAL RE-EDUCATION CENTRES IN XINJIANG
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The Human Rights Watch in a report released on September 10, 2017, claimed that since April 2017, the authorities in the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region have forcibly detained thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities at 'political re-education centres' and ben subjecting them to propaganda promoting Chinese identity. Human Rights Watch said these political re-education centres were located around Kashgar City and Bortala Prefecture in 2017. They said the detentions began in the spring and lasted for several months. They said that people sent to the centers were not presented with a warrant, evidence of a crime, or any other documentation. The official Xinjiang Daily and local people generally refer to them as “counter extremism training centers” (去极端化培训班) and “education and transformation training centers” (教育转化培训中心). Detainees are required to learn the Chinese language, and recite Chinese and Xinjiang laws and policies. They are compelled to watch pro-government propaganda videos, and to renounce their ethnic and religious identities, reciting slogans such as “religion is harmful,” and “learning Chinese is part of patriotism.” An April 5 Xinjiang Daily article reported that over 2,000 people had been “trained” in a Hotan facility, though it does not give a time frame. Media reports say that ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz have also been detained for having traveled abroad or having “spoken about Kazakhstan a lot.”
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