China says it has arrested 13,000 'terrorists' in Xinjiang

Conditions must be bad in China if they feel they have to detain so many people.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/18/china-says-it-has-arrested-13000-terrorists-in-xinjiang

Lily Kuo in Beijing
Mon 18 Mar 2019 07.10 EDT
Last modified on Mon 18 Mar 2019 13.07 EDT

China has claimed to have arrested 13,000 “terrorists” in Xinjiang over the last five years, as it launched an aggressive propaganda campaign in defence of its restrictive measures in the far-western region.

Human rights advocates and researchers believe more than 1 million Muslims – mostly Uighurs as well as Kazakhs and other groups – are being systematically imprisoned in internment camps where they are forced to undergo political re-education.

•••••

China’s accounts contrast sharply with satellite imagery that shows prison-like facilities surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers, and testimonies by former and current residents, as well as ex-detainees of the camps.

James Leibold, an associate professor at La Trobe University focusing on ethnic relations, said: “It’s about competing imagery and competing narrative, and if you can saturate the marketplace with your narrative and your images it can be accepted as truth. They’ve really gone into overdrive.”

•••••