Darren Byler is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he studies the technology and politics of urban life in Chinese Central Asia and around the world. His writing has appeared in Logic, Guardian, and ChinaFile among other publications.
For 16 hours, people in a Clubhouse room called “Is there a concentration camp in Xinjiang?” spoke freely, centering the discussion on those most harmed by state violence. Even while it was happening, the conversation felt historic — and worth preserving.
“They said there was a document sent from above, from the administrative center, and that they were acting based on that document. They said no one can change the document since it was sent from the Central Committee. They said that the current system would not change until all Muslim nationalities would be extinct.”
Dawut disappeared in December 2017 after being detained by state authorities as she planned to travel to Beijing for a conference. She has not been publicly charged with a crime.
Around 9.5 million Han Chinese live in Xinjiang, making up about 40% of the region's population. How do they view Beijing's policies of surveillance and Uyghur reeducation?
In Uyghur society, lending money is more than capital exchange, it's part of a practice that social theorist AbdouMaliq Simone refers to as “taking care.” In Xinjiang, as China's "People's War on Terror" accelerated, money transfers across international boundaries were seen as a possible sign of extremism — just another way that Uyghurs were cut off from their support networks and isolated from one another.
Life in the big city can be hard for Chinese migrant workers, but in Urumqi, economic incentives give them more opportunities than they'd get elsewhere. Provided that they are ethnically Han, that is.
For the family of sisters Nursiman and Nur’iman, a local work brigade placed a small red plaque with five stars on it to the front gate of their house. The stars stood for “patriotism, honesty, education, hygiene, and harmony.” But in the end, that didn't stop the sisters' parents and brother from being sent to jail for reasons that remain murky to this day.
There was a time, not too long ago, when friendship was possible between the Han Chinese of Xinjiang and their Uyghur neighbors. But where there once was camaraderie, now there is suspicion, fear, and empty slogans.
Hüsenjan was a Chinese state employee — and member of the Chinese Communist Party — tasked with creating dictionaries for the Uyghur language. His work couldn’t save him.
“I started to see a sadness in their eyes. They had become sad. They didn’t know what to do, so they just accepted it.” Post-disappearance...