Seeing journalists in the US writing about the human rights crisis in Xinjiang for the first time. That's great! Just pointing out a few small/factual aspects of the story that might be missed by those new to it. 1) Xinjiang is not a province of China, it's a region.
2) Xinjiang is called an "autonomous region" but there's literally nothing autonomous about it so I wouldn't advise any independent journalist to call it that. 3) Uighurs aren't the only Muslims in China, there are also ~10 million Hui Muslims as well as ethnic Kazakhs & others
4) Uighurs are the primary group affected by the current crackdown in the region but not the only group. Other Muslim minorities (notably Kazakhs) are also being sent to reeducation camps.
5) It's misleading to call Chinese govt policy in XJ ONLY an "anti-terror drive" or an anti-separatism campaign. Official reports make it clear this is also about religion and culture.
6) The surveillance in Xinjiang should not be conflated with the Social Credit System, which is not targeting ethnic minorities.
Lastly, Xinjiang is remote (for China), and reporting there is expensive, difficult and slow. Consider this my plea to credit reporters whose news organizations have poured time and resources into on-the-ground coverage of this important story over the past year and a half.
ps if you're thinking of writing about this and you have a question about some aspect of the story, my DMs are open — I can try to help or direct you to someone who can if I can't. Thanks Twitter!
preemptively answering "who the hell are you" — I took my first trip to Xinjiang in 2009 and have reported on it on and off since 2012, first for Reuters and now for BuzzFeed News. Was lucky to have a boss who guided me through the history/basics when I started.
