other parts of China, with some coming directly from detention camps.635 Reports have also called into question the supply chains of numerous well-known global brands.636
6.5 ‘CAMP TO PRISON’ Some detainees are transferred from internment camps to prison. Like the process of being released to go home, the seemingly related process through which camp detainees were given prison sentences is not well understood, even by former detainees who appear to have had some exposure to the process. It is also unclear how the release process and the sentencing process were connected – especially how, or if, the prison sentencing process in the camps is integrated with any formal sentencing process outside the camps.
DRAMATIC INCREASE IN PRISON SENTENCES IN XINJIANG SINCE 2017 Since 2017, massive numbers of individuals from ethnic minority groups have been sent to prisons in Xinjiang.637 Journalists at The New York Times, relying entirely on Chinese government statistics, demonstrated that incarceration rates in Xinjiang increased dramatically in 2017 and 2018, with hundreds of thousands more people being sent to prisons than on average – a 10-fold increase – in previous years. The data reportedly include prison sentences and “other criminal punishments, which can include suspended sentences or house detention”.638 Since The New York Times investigation, the government has not released any more data on incarceration rates in Xinjiang. It is not known how many – if any – of the people included in the official government statistics were initially sent to internment camps and then given prison sentences and transferred to prisons. There is evidence that some people – perhaps large numbers – have been sent from internment camps to prisons or other detention facilities.639 According to another report by Human Rights Watch, also relying on Chinese government statistics, in 2017 there was a dramatic increase in the number of lengthy sentences handed down by courts in Xinjiang. Before 2017, prison sentences longer than five years accounted for approximately 11% of the total number of people sentenced. In 2017, 87% of sentences were more than five years.640
635 See Nathan Vanderklippe, Globe and Mail, “Thousands of Uyghurs Workers in China are being relaocated in an effort to assimilate Muslims, documents show: Xinjiang’s Muslim minorities have been moved to factories thousands of kilometres away to sever their ties to home and undermine their culture, internal documents and Chinese researchers reveal,” 2 March 2021, www.theglobeandmail.com/world/ article-thousands-of-uyghur-workers-in-china-are-being-relocated-in-an-effort/; Eva Dou, Jeanne Whalen, and Alicia Chen, Washington Post, “U.S. ban on China’s Xinjiang cotton fractures faction industry supply chains,” 22 February 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/world/ asia_pacific/china-cotton-sanctions-xinjiang-uighurs/2021/02/21/a8a4b128-70ee-11eb-93be-c10813e358a2_story.html; Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Danielle Cave, Dr James Leibold, Kelsey Munro & Nathan Ruser, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, “Uyghurs for Sale: ‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang,” 1 March 2020, www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale 636 See Laura T. Murphy and Nyrola Elima, Sheffield Hallam University Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice, “In Broad Daylight: Uyghur Forced Labour and Global Solar Supply Chains,” 2021, www.shu.ac.uk/helena-kennedy-centre-international-justice/ research-and-projects/all-projects/in-broad-daylight; Alexandra Stevenson, New York Times, “China’s Forced-Labor Backlash Threatens to Put N.B.A in Unwanted Spotlight: Lucrative endorsements deals with Chinese sports brands supporting Xinjiang cotton could pull the league and its athletes back into another geopolitical firestorm,” 9 April 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/business/china-nba-anta-xinjiang.html; Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Danielle Cave, Dr James Leibold, Kelsey Munro & Nathan Ruser, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, “Uyghurs for Sale: ‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang,” 1 March 2020, www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale 637 Chinese Human Rights Defenders, “Criminal Arrests in Xinjiang Account for 21% of China’s Total in 2017: China’s Counter-Terror Campaign Indiscriminately Targets Ethnic & Religious Minorities in Xinjiang,” 25 July 2018, www.nchrd.org/2018/07/criminal-arrests-inxinjiang-account-for-21-of-chinas-total-in-2017/;The Art of Life in Chinese Central Asia, The Elephant in the XUAR: II. Brand new prisons, expanding old prisons, & hundreds of thousands of new inmates, Gene A. Bunin, 4 January 2021, livingotherwise.com/2021/01/04/theelephant-in-the-xuar-ii-brand-new-prisons-expanding-old-prisons-and-hundreds-of-thousands-new-inmates/ 638 New York Times. China’s Prisons Swell After Deluge of Arrests Engulfs Muslims: Arrests, trials and prison sentences have surged in Xinjiang, where Uighurs and Kazakhs also face reeducation, 31 August 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/08/31/world/asia/xinjiang-chinauighurs-prisons.html; Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), 25 July 2018, www.nchrd.org/2018/07/criminal-arrests-in-xinjiang-accountfor-21-of-chinas-total-in-2017 639 Shohret Hoshur, Radio Free Asia, Xinjiang Authorities Secretly Transferring Uyghur Detainees to Jails Throughout China, 2 October 2018, www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/transfer-10022018171100.html; Holly Robertson, ABC News, “China reportedly begins mass transfers of Uighur detainees from Xinjiang to prisons nationwide, 9 October 2018, www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-10/is-china-transferringuighur-detainees-to-far-flung-prisons/10356406; Gene A. Bunin, Art of Life in Chinese Central Asia, “From camps to prisons: Xinjiang’s next great human rights catastrophe,” 5 October 2019, livingotherwise.com/2019/10/05/from-camps-to-prisons-xinjiangs-next-great-human-rightscatastrophe-by-gene-a-bunin/ 640 Human Rights Watch, China: Baseless Imprisonments Surge in Xinjiang – Harsh, Unjust Sentences for Uyghurs, Other Muslims, 24 February 2021, www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/24/china-baseless-imprisonments-surge-xinjiang#
“LIKE WE WERE ENEMIES IN A WAR” CHINA’S MASS INTERNMENT, TORTURE AND PERSECUTION OF MUSLIMS IN XINJIANG Amnesty International
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