In a program called “Becoming Family” party members lived in Uyghur homes for weeks at a time where they expected to be treated like family, even though they were freeloaders and informers. Men looked the other way if these “Family” members molested their wives or daughters. Otherwise, they might all end up in prison.
The CCP didn’t stop with traditional methods of social control, such as neighbors reporting on neighbors and children turning in their parents for expressing inappropriate sentiments. Added to their repertoire were today’s hi-tech devices. All Uyghurs were required to have cell phones with tracking aps on them. They were told to always leave the app on even when abroad. Facial recognition cameras are everywhere in Xinjiang. Anyone going into a still-existing mosque could be identified, captured and reprimanded.
That same technology was used by Uyghur supporters outside of China to expose CCP social controls and punishments. Google Earth images were used to locate and count the destroyed mosques, new prisons, re-education camps and slave labor camps. Almost anything digital can be hacked, including government reports not intended for public view.
In the rurals, farmers were forced to plant cotton rather than food crops. Cotton was turned into clothing in the burgeoning detention centers. Turkel estimates that there are now 1,300 concentration camps with over a million prisoners. Many Uyghurs are making products sold by US and EU companies, in addition to sales of hair and clothing.
Next time you purchase something that says “Made in China” ask yourself how much of it was made with slave labor.
Copyright © 2022 Jo Freeman
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