All Reading
This section contains a curated list of useful articles, investigations, books and other reading materials. The list is updated on a weekly basis and suggestions for additions are welcome.
Starting Points:
American drug firms accused of clinical trials in Uyghur region
American pharmaceutical companies are carrying out drug trials in Xinjiang, where the United States says a genocide of the Uyghur population is taking place, U.S. lawmakers say.
Experts: China is sequencing Uyghur DNA for organ harvesting
Experts informed a U.S. committee that Chinese authorities are gathering genetic data from Uyghurs for a forced organ transplant program aimed at Muslim medical tourists from Gulf states.
Academic paper based on Uyghur genetic data retracted over ethical concerns
Concerns have been raised that academic publishers may not be doing enough to vet the ethical standards of research they publish, after a paper based on genetic data from China’s Uyghur population was retracted.
Four Takeaways From a Times Investigation Into China’s Expanding Surveillance State
China is collecting a staggering amount of personal data from everyday citizens at a previously-unknown scale, a Times investigation has found.
China’s Surveillance State Is Growing. These Documents Reveal How.
A Times Investigation analyzing over 100,000 government bidding documents found that China’s ambition to collect digital and biological data from its citizens is more expansive and invasive than previously known.
One by One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps
This account by a Uyghur and his family who escaped from Xinjiang’s persecution shares with the world his experience of the calamity engulfing his homeland.
From Xinjiang to Mississippi: Terror Capitalism, Labour and Surveillance
This essay by ethnographic researcher Darren Byler explores the political and economic forces at work in the checkpoints, camps, and factories of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Genomic surveillance: Inside China's DNA dragnet
The Chinese Government is building the world’s largest police-run DNA database in close cooperation with key industry partners across the globe. Yet, unlike the managers of other forensic databases, Chinese authorities are deliberately enrolling tens of millions of people who have no history of serious criminal activity. Those individuals (including preschool-age children) have no control over how their samples are collected, stored and used.
‘I took a business trip to China. Then I got shackled to a chair.’ The heartbreaking stories of Uyghurs in exile
In Turkey, the Star spoke to Uyghurs-in-exile including an internment camp survivor. These are their stories, in their own words.
Mapping more of China's tech giants: AI and surveillance
This public database maps companies and organisations to visualise a holistic picture of the increasingly global reach of China’s tech giants, including companies working in the artificial intelligence (AI) and surveillance tech sectors.
China’s Algorithms of Repression: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
This report provides a detailed description and analysis of a mobile app that police and other officials use to communicate with the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), one of the main systems Chinese authorities use for mass surveillance in Xinjiang. The findings provide an unprecedented window into how mass surveillance actually works in Xinjiang, because the IJOP system is central to a larger ecosystem of social monitoring and control in the region.
Digital police state shackles Chinese minority
Mass disappearances, beginning the past year, are part of a sweeping effort by Chinese authorities to use detentions and data-driven surveillance to impose a digital police state in the region of Xinjiang and over its Uighurs.
In Western China, Thought Police Instill Fear
Nobody knows what happened to the Uighur student after he returned to China from Egypt and was taken away by police. Not his neighbors, not his classmates, not his mother.
Minority Region Collects DNA from Millions - Private Information Gathered by Police, Under Guise of Public Health Program
Chinese authorities in Xinjiang are collecting DNA samples, fingerprints, iris scans, and blood types of all residents in the region between the age of 12 and 65, Human Rights Watch said today. This campaign significantly expands authorities’ collection of biodata beyond previous government efforts in the region, which only required all passport applicants in Xinjiang to supply biometrics.
China: Voice Biometric Collection Threatens Privacy - Police, AI Giant Collaboration in Legal Gray Area
The Chinese government is collecting “voice pattern” samples of individuals to establish a national voice biometric database, Human Rights Watch said today. Authorities are collaborating with iFlytek, a Chinese company that produces 80 percent of all speech recognition technology in the country, to develop a pilot surveillance system that can automatically identify targeted voices in phone conversations. “The Chinese government has been collecting the voice patterns of tens of thousands of people with little transparency about the program or laws regulating who can be targeted or how that information is going to be used,” said Sophie Richardson, China director. “Authorities can easily misuse that data in a country with a long history of unchecked surveillance and retaliation against critics.”
Police DNA Database Threatens Privacy
China’s police are collecting DNA from individuals for a nationally searchable database without oversight, transparency, or privacy protections, Human Rights Watch said today. Evidence suggests that the regional government in Xinjiang, an ethnic minority region with a history of government repression, intends to accelerate the collection and indexing of DNA.