An activist has uncovered 18 prison camps in Xinjiang. According to the Chinese government, they do not exist. He has them on video.
Guan Guan, a young activist from China studying in Taiwan, has posted his report on YouTube in the form of a 19-minute video. The footage shows barbed wire, guard towers, police checkpoints, military vehicles, and banners that read, "Reform through Labor".
The young man was on a covert mission as he wandered the streets of Urumqi trying to look like a tourist. The plan: to uncover a network of labor and punishment camps that, according to the Chinese government's official statement, did not exist.
The background is Beijing's bitter fight against the Muslim minority of the Uyghurs in China. Especially these are found in the concentration camps. Guan visited a total of eight cities and discovered 18 camps whose existence was officially unknown. Uyghurs who had managed to escape from such camps told of systematic sexual abuse, rape and beatings. Prisoners in the camps were also forced to sing communist songs. The Chinese government vehemently denies all this. read more