Editor - Xinjiang Victims Database Blog

“There are no secrets in Xinjiang. All the most advanced equipment in the country is here.”

Zhang Guanjun, the Party Committee Secretary of Qaraqash County (2017-2023), at a meeting.

With the authorities claiming that sending to training was an important measure, I couldn’t help but ask: then why do it in the middle of the night?

A review of pre-trial detention centers in Xinjiang: I. Role in the overall detention system

A drone view of the Hotan County Pre-Trial Detention Center.

The large-scale advent and use of camps between 2017 and 2019 gave pre-trial detention centers in Xinjiang additional functions. Instead of just being a precursor to formal prison, the detention center was often a temporary holding facility for those later transferred to camp.

“Commitment not clear and precise, as he did not dare to smoke in front of religious figures.”

Cadres attend a meeting in Hotan.

A full translation of an article published in the Urumqi Evening News on April 9, 2017, illustrating the strict disciplinary measures taken by the government at the beginning of the mass incarcerations, with many officials demonstratively censured.

Lives lost: Xinjiang-related violence vs. mass incarceration (in numbers)

Police station following an attack on June 26, 2013, in Pichan County's Lukchun Municipality.

This page seeks to maintain a detailed list of all the known violent incidents related to Xinjiang since 2000, and to calculate how the resulting death toll compares to the equivalent death toll from mass incarceration.

“The oppressive system aside, I forgave all who could be called human.”

Abduweli Ayup (third from left) with friends in Kashgar in August 2015, not long before his departure from the country. Many of them, including entrepreneur Ekber Eset (third from right), filmmaker Abdurehim Ablethan (second from left), and Alimjan (first from left), have since been taken.

A detailed summary of Abduweli Ayup’s memoir, “Mehbus Rohlar” (“Imprisoned Spirits”), which details his 458 days in pre-trial detention.

Estimating sentencing numbers from Xinjiang’s judicial statistics

Estimates on individuals sentenced each year in Xinjiang between 2007 and 2021.

Judicial data between 2007 and 2022 are reviewed, inconsistencies are identified and removed, and lower and upper estimates on numbers of individuals sentenced are computed.

The 2009-2015 Prisoners List: Summary and analysis of the 18000+ individuals therein

Inmates during an activity at the Beiye Prison in Shihezi (2016).

At the end of 2021, two large prisoner lists were leaked to database staff. One of them, covered here, contains information regarding over 18000 individuals, sentenced between 2009 and 2015 for political/religious reasons.

Detentions, arrests, fines: Three years of protests in front of the Chinese consulate

Relatives of ethnic Kazakhs imprisoned in Chinese camps protest near the Chinese consulate in Almaty. February 8, 2024.

68-year-old Qalida Aqythan is among those who have been regularly participating in the protests outside the Chinese consulate in Almaty for the past three years. She has a compelling reason not to stop fighting: three of her children are in Chinese prison.

“Afraid of demons in my dreams? I’m used to them now, as I’ve seen them in real life.”

Zhanargul Zhumatai, in her final address to the international community prior to being disappeared a second time.

“There is nothing that I can do to prevent them from doing what they need to do. But if I disappear or if I die, I want the world to hold them responsible. To ask what happened to me, to know that I didn’t die a natural death. Many people should know about this, about what has happened to me. The world should know!”

“Here on featherweight rights, with relatives in Xinjiang pressured”: The fates of those who fled China

Qaisha Aqan, a Kazakh from China, with an asylum-seeker certificate.

A few years ago, ethnic Kazakhs Qaisha Aqan, Qaster Musahan, and Murager Alim, fearing persecution in Xinjiang, fled China and illegally crossed the Kazakhstan border. This year marks their third living on refugee certificates, as Astana is neither granting them citizenship nor issuing the travel documents necessary to relocate to a third country.