China’s Disappearing Muslims, from VICE News, is a hard-hitting investigation into the system of hidden injustice and suffering sanctioned by the Chinese government.
The targets of this abuse are Uyghurs, a Muslim minority who have lived in China’s Xinjiang region for centuries. They are subjected to systematic social ostracism. Huge detention centers were built to house over a million Uyghurs. Once in prison, they were subjected to a strict system of indoctrination and conditioned to adhere to more “traditional” Han customs and beliefs.
The Chinese call these facilities vocational centers, but the UN rightly calls them concentration camps. However, the Chinese strictly protect their systems from prying eyes. Journalists were barred from revealing information.
This presents a special challenge for filmmakers. Despite posing as tourists rather than reporters, they felt an ominous tension upon arriving in the racially charged area. The city is rife with armed police, constantly patrolling security checkpoints and surveillance cameras, and a distrustful rhetoric of outsiders. Even in the most populous tourist destinations, few are willing to acknowledge filmmakers, let alone answer their tough questions. Some claimed to be ignorant of the massive persecution of the Uyghur people, while others merely whispered in the view of the cameras.
They find better luck outside of China when they come across a group of former prisoners who have managed to escape the camp’s borders. They witnessed the brutality of the captors. They were covered by darkness in the middle of the night. If a female prisoner becomes pregnant, she is forced to have an abortion. Others were forced to undergo torture and falsely claim to have committed terrorist attacks. “They don’t care if people die,” explained one former prisoner. “Their main purpose is to create communist robots.”
“China’s Vanishing Muslims” is a remarkable piece of journalism that focuses on atrocities that have long been hidden from the public eye.
