Last month saw the publication of more leaked database documents from the mass detention and surveillance system the Chinese state has imposed upon the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The documents reveal the bureaucratic minutiae of a policy of incarceration, indoctrination and forced assimilation that analysts are now describing as cultural genocide.
They list the personal information of 3,000 Uyghurs, along with the bizarre reasons for the internment of 311 of them, such as "untrustworthiness," "violating birth control policies," "religious behavior" or "having family members abroad," and evaluations listing behavior that justified release back into a supervised home community life.
These mass persecutions are expressions of a growing hypernationalism and drive for national homogeneity under President Xi Jinping's authoritarian leadership. However, they are also continuous with policies emerging during the late 1990s intended to curb minority nationalism and rights activism in Xinjiang, using incidents of terrorist and inter-ethnic violence as pretexts for repression.
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