I’m very proud. But worth saying, the situation in Xinjiang remains a terrible tragedy. Millions, like Ferkat’s mother, suffer silently under surveillance and intimidation. The bulk of our team is no longer allowed to report in China, so such abuses are now much harder to cover.
Proud to have been part of an amazing team and a huge thanks also to all the editors who are so indispensable and don’t get enough acknowledgement: @gillianwong @CRTejada @adriennecarter @puiwingtam @ellenjpollock1 @meslackman @panphil
Because all that matters is the work, going to take this chance to repost the pieces we did over the past year on Xinjiang. It's harrowing stuff, but a vital reminder of the deep costs of China's rising authoritarianism. Here's a look at Kashgar last year: nytimes.com/interactive/20…
@austinramzy and @ChuBailiang showed how the Chinese Communist Party methodically locked away Uighurs by the hundreds of thousands without trial. How they tried to hide it. How purges cultivated a culture of fear. And how Xi Jinping called the shots. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
@amyyqin on the half million children orphaned by the mass internment of Uighurs and how Beijing is using state schools to work to cut them off from their culture and religion, and instill a loyalty to party and country. nytimes.com/2019/12/28/wor…
@suilee on chilling mandatory medical checkups Chinese police imposed on Uighurs. How they pulled from American expertise and tech to harvest coerced DNA samples, strengthening surveillance and feeding racialized research. nytimes.com/2019/02/21/bus…
We also looked at how China's police bought facial recognition algorithms that automated the process of racial profiling. Using ubiquitous cameras the systems try to identify Uighurs, and other minorities, by face and track their whereabouts. nytimes.com/2019/04/14/tec…
@muyixiao with rare video footage that showed the harsh life of indoctrination the million or more who had been locked away inside re-education camps faced: nytimes.com/video/world/as…
Through immense bravery and sacrifice, @ferkat_jawdat spent all year discussing how the Chinese government disappeared his mother and then tried to use her life to buy his silence. At great risk she discussed life inside the camps when I went to visit her: nytimes.com/2019/12/09/pod…
In cooperation with @ICIJorg , a look at six internal documents showed sweeping, arbitrary arrests and offered a glimpse at how the camps were run. As Beijing publicly denied holding people agains their will, the docs focused on stopping escapes. nytimes.com/2019/11/24/wor…
Our examination of how outside the camps, authorities used technology and huge manpower to turn the wider world into a living prison. Databases mapped families. Cameras watched always. Facial-recognition powered checkpoints controlled movement. nytimes.com/2019/05/22/wor…
And what the future holds. How scientists working with Chinese police combined DNA w/ facial recognition to develop more powerful surveillance. And how despite questions around consent and ethics they were able to publish in America's best known journals. nytimes.com/2019/12/03/bus…
With reporting like this in China, there are many people it's not safe to name at all. They took huge risk in exchange for no public credit, simply to help the world get a glimpse of what looks very much like ethnic cleansing. They are heroes.
