Nearly one in 25 people in China’s Uighur Central District has been sentenced to prison on terrorism charges, the highest known percentage of prison in the world, according to a review of the Associated Press.
A list obtained and partially confirmed by the Associated Press cites the names of more than 10,000 Uighurs sent to prison in Konasheher County alone, one of dozens in southern Xinjiang. In recent years, China has carried out brutal repression against Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim minority, which it has described as a “war on terror.”
The list is the largest to appear with the names of imprisoned Uighurs, reflecting the large-scale campaign of the Chinese government, which swept about a million or more people into internment camps and prisons. He also reaffirmed what families and human rights groups have been saying for years: China relies on a long-term imprisonment system to keep Uighurs under control, using the law as a weapon of repression.
Under fierce international criticism, Chinese officials have announced the closure in 2019 of short-term out-of-court internment camps where Uighurs have been thrown without charge. However, despite the focus on the camps, thousands of Uighurs are still serving years or even decades in prison for what experts say are fabricated accusations of terrorism.
Konasheher County is typical of rural southern Xinjiang and is home to more than 267,000 people. Sentences in the entire county ranged from two to 25 years, averaging nine years, the list said. While the people on the list were mostly arrested in 2017, according to the Uighurs in exile, their sentences are so long that the vast majority will still be in prison.
They were swept away from all walks of life and included men, women, young people and the elderly. They had only one thing in common: they were all Uighurs.
Experts say this clearly shows that the people were targeted simply because they were Uighurs, a conclusion strongly denied by the Chinese authorities. Xinjiang spokesman Elian Anayat said the sentences were carried out in accordance with the law.
“We will never focus specifically on specific regions, ethnic groups, religions, much less Uighurs,” Anayat said. “We will never confuse the good, nor will we release the bad.”
The list was obtained by Xinjiang scholar Jin Bunin from an anonymous source who described himself as a member of the Chinese Chinese majority, “opposed to the Chinese government’s policy in Xinjiang.” He was handed over to the AP by Abduveli Ayup, an Uighur linguist in exile in Norway. The AP confirmed this through interviews with eight Uighurs who identified 194 people on the list, as well as legal messages, recordings of telephone conversations with Chinese officials and checks at addresses, birthdays and identity numbers.
The list does not include people with typical criminal charges such as murder or theft. Rather, it focuses on crimes related to terrorism, religious extremism or vague accusations traditionally used against political dissidents, such as “gathering quarrels and provoking problems.” This means that the real number of prisoners is almost certainly higher.
But even with a conservative estimate, the percentage of prisons in Konasheher County is more than 10 times higher than in the United States, one of the world’s leading prisoners, according to Justice Department statistics. In addition, it is more than 30 times higher than in China as a whole, according to state statistics from 2013, when such data were last published.
Darren Bayler, an expert on the Xinjiang Mass Detention System, said most arrests were arbitrary and illegal, with people being detained for having relatives abroad or downloading certain mobile phone apps.
“It’s really remarkable,” Baylor said. “Nowhere else have we seen entire populations of people described as terrorists or treated as terrorists.
China is using the law “like a fig leaf of law” in part to try to deflect international criticism of Uighur detention, said Jeremy Daum, a criminal law expert at Yale University’s Paul Tsai China Center.
The secret nature of the charges against the detainees is a red flag, experts say. Although China makes legal files easily accessible otherwise, almost 90% of Xinjiang’s criminal files are not public. A handful of leaks show that people have been accused of “terrorism” for acting as a warning to colleagues not to watch porn and swearing or praying in prison.
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