Beijing expands prison camps in East Turkestan

The Chinese government has allocated 70 million yuan from the central budget to expand vocational training centers in the southern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The purpose of this is:

Construction of new consciousness-clearing camps in the Khotan, Tashkorgon, Shayar districts and the East Jungrian economic zone;

Expanding the total area of the camps to 21.8 thousand m²;

Increase annual capacity to 26,000 people;

71.4% of the budget is spent on the southern regions of the region.

But human rights activists see this as a continuation of a policy of forced assimilation and mass internment in camps. Analysts say the facilities, known as the centers, are a means of systematically suppressing Uyghurs through forced labor, ideological indoctrination, and cultural destruction.