China’s Vanishing Muslims: Undercover In The Most Dystopian Place In The World

[Music] [Applause] will hide each other a special 2004 spirit pass on security [Music] [Music] and I think my illness limits of me tomorrow ladies and gentlemen and all our frequent flyers [Music] so no jungle default Devon feel I can be under sidewalk you should we love make sure she'll do a neo we talk later we're in Xinjiang a place unlike anywhere on earth it's home to the Wiegand mostly Muslim minority who've lived here for centuries shinjang has long been a pressure point where China's ethnic tensions have played out but in the last decade handful of violent incidents have disturbed the region it's been three days since bloody riots broke out pitting ethnic we're Muslims against the dominant Han Chinese China blames this unrest on Islamic extremism and ethnic separatism their response to detain over 1 million people in massive new facilities where they're taken for so-called re-education the government has presented these as joyful training schools where they're correcting extremist behavior for the US Defense Department has called them concentration camps in an effort to clamp down on information leaking out of the region journalists have been prevented from reporting freely here so my colleague and I traveled to shinjang as travel bloggers in the hopes we'd slip under the radar and get to speak with Rieger people still living here we snuck in with hidden cameras most of what we captured was filmed secretly yeah [Music] shell [Music] then I'm gonna have to be [Music] there are checkpoints every few hundred yards even entering the small bazaar your bags go through airport type security and your bodies and faces are scanned its leaguers who are stopped and so far everyone we've met seems to think I'm reader weaker people look different to the Han Chinese who make up over 90 percent of China's population instead we cos are ethnically Turkic Muslims with close ties to Central Asia [Music] the world's most sophisticated surveillance technology is being implemented here with meticulous diligence among the hundreds of flashing lights suspended from the ceiling a rows of surveillance cameras literally every two meters I counted at least 40 just in a small room watching over every conversation [Applause] we've decided to travel and the build-up to Chinese New Year because and in part because we had that security you should be a little bit more lacks traveling around the region but it doesn't mean that there's about a million people trying to get on a train we had the outside the main city Regas are essentially living in open prisons in places where surveillance is even tighter so we took a 17 hour train ride to the ancient city of kashgar to find out if that rang true we splurged on a sleeper cabin which we wound up sharing with us friendly han chinese woman great Sammy and there wasn't any man you booked it and it is done with a deli don't eat it Henchard a good day was him for 13 maybe and a $21 whore she shouted up so so we took an entire year to freshmen this is a punji Young Saeng to do certain certain doís to know them hang out any hating any happiness we capital G personal Christmas in the ceramic which I'll cancel potential and always earn you know some tunic so I jump in the defense'll ah honeyy ET the audience what again so with him yeah normal questions has started we apologize nutritive to you we learn by shore with in calcium because the psychogenic family can become eternally from a little cousin boss I spent the journey walking up and down the train and hanging out between the carriages and smoking endless packs of Chinese cigarettes in hopes of striking up conversations on several of my cigarette missions I walked past a young Riga man he kept catching my eye when everyone had gone to sleep and the carriages fell silent he stopped me we've disguised his voice for his own protection [Music] [Music] [Music] we arrived in Kashgar surveillance cameras were everywhere what day is it today Wednesday 100,000 new police officers have been hired across the region from 2016 to 2017 alone and it shows a lot of the officers who manned the thousands of checkpoints or wiggers themselves wandering around the city barely any Weger would look at me or even say hello anyone could be an informant [Music] to film this street so there's not so obvious that what I'm actually trying to film is the girls behind me but I'm having some insane security twice a day in Kashgar shopkeepers street cleaners and delivery people take part in security drills [Music] [Music] we got off easy this time or the piece let us go after deleting our footage but knowing we're now being watched we didn't want to push it so we looked around for the most conspicuous tourist activity we could find with me this feels very wrong I'm just walking around the cultural heart of cash cow city with the goings camel throwing peace signs at the camera [Music] we were desperate to talk to the locals to understand how this once vibrant city had become so ghostly so we hit the town and wound up in a dreary bar between songs we struck up a conversation with a couple of Chinese guys Oh over the next hour and a half one after another piece arrived the most senior officer spoke English with a crisp British accent and deleted a bunch of our footage we insisted over and over that we were just tourists not journalists he seemed to believe our story then finally merci it was 12:30 a.m. one walked back to the hotel the streets were dead then I saw movement [Music] so we're just watching as a bunch of policemen are marching 8-week the men young men all the way down the street so PlayStation will just wash things for us so a minutes or so much in that security nothing else affects their job and its whiteness just impossible to stay even on forever contact with serious risk my suspicion [Music] Saguna domestic in religion is only a few we girls who've been detained have managed to escape the country in the last few years in Istanbul we joined a rare gathering between a group of former detainees to talk about their experiences together for the first time they answered the questions we couldn't ask while we're in China well possible shared DNA innovation in Vedic you never get love me mr. cuddles Peninsula Minister Minister Paul D my Allah my Allah born I'm a secular having it in all dk1 all the kids to take any texture day and yet it was a shock to believe it blah I shall kill the Kamera they may not mean on Gandhi I know Salomon again wash mutt Panda they don't know nasty one inanimate of that very million use me in Sun Valley unless people did that shoes hurt enormous Kochiyama Van Alden amidst nature lover oh you guys spent time in the camps I mean what was your crime what were you each take it in for local and mmm look at did you get emotional witches don't let purchase ice-cold on it until yes yes see ottoman the snowland serve don't come in on an embassy I totally manga number image Boulanger night at three don't let the party lush terror Solana - kill - Terra Australis TM originated on going on the scrimmage holiday mana mana theorist again member hot belly Cooper Haji terrorist so this is from the state security have you been involved in terrorism Baloch illness knuckle their gender prediction member luolan chuckerman shellfish emulation biscuit Lucia what were the similarities in terms of actually being taken to these camps assent Monda that's that the kitchen table I will no mass the kitchen operational master Solano is the recessive I ponder kapamas Trojan Arabism build another logical Sirocco so much early on the caliche Ohana was to get the tire Tamagotchi in as partnerships total school the major problem is may you contend on jimmao Shin Dongwoo cones and touching now he means Oh question yet my mentor bashful Jocelyn in zapathon you were subordinate function occurs women around the knowledgeable equesticle Ankara in Sinai Charlotte a shrinking machine status judge Nangle Imogen trash Krishna a megillah' commercial quite adorable smaller machine chorus called and again the elimination bra really comparison Denman communism system is the key aerobic insulin prosperous Helena magnatum Hammond asana autonomous on calipower chicken all at the communism socialism the ayah says it much more lies [Music] [Music] accompany mommy one color pocket Danica in 2016 Calvin was seven months pregnant when she left shinjang with her husband and two year old son Mohammad van der Luyden reminisce can be do meaning King Mohammed not today old is she 19 she was truly an innkeeper and stepfather vegetable of making it cheaper family some native to need other high atop Mishnah get my skin and step in obtain a little bit harder what was your plan for being reunited with your family when you left shin-chan I'm sorry you mean icky icky tap and Shabana no Passport Panama but an ad in a kill the wrong philosophy again to carry on basic Rankine our today Bandra Milan is Karishma dead chicken Nick and Emily on that body [Music] Calvados husband was detained after he returned to shinjang he's now serving a ten year sentence for travelling overseas and suspected terrorism leaving five of her young children without their parents what do you think happened to your kids sure Tom cattlemen again bruxism named their Hooton the comparator billy sheehan about devilish larger than that of a video and keg and thinking member Amish mafia treat you to tea instead - mm - no she think this might have been taken inside an orphanage children in Maternity India on end each axis the business that we love Laura a kid can learn a lot about Laura Michelle Norris pumpkin [Music] do you have any other information at all about your children and yet mr. clever your meaning is an inky HM no no more important little help and top-up chattel Allah Allah : racially it's a sudden kiss with telephone atoms I should say Latin meaning column name a circadian jasmine' entitle Allah Allah hold on a minute [Laughter] [Music] we wanted to know whether the rumors of kids being sent to state-run institutions were true we found the original video of Calvin ORS daughter from social media the user had uploaded other videos that also look like schools we tracked those locations to kindergardens in Houghton a city nearly 300 miles from Cal burners hometown we delved into Houghton Prefecture government records which showed that in 2017 alone the number of kindergardens more than doubled this was at the same time that China began sending hundreds of thousands of weaker adults to the camps we identified several more compounds in Houghton all built around the same time and with the same distinctive features large walled off complexes with colorful turrets and brightly painted patterns on the ground we wanted to head back to shinjang to investigate knowing we were already on the government's radar the risks were higher [Music] [Music] from all this Han Chinese businessman told us it seemed like common knowledge that the government was taking children of detainees in as if they were also news mapping out the GPS coordinates we had we set out to find the locations we identified as possible orphanages [Music] so we're just walking down this really pretty street in the Houghton and kind of similar vibes to cash guy I mean the streets are abandoned a lot of padlock houses seems like a lot of people have disappeared [Music] it's interesting just in this small neighborhood we passed three mosques even though we're actually here during the month of Ramadan I can't hear a speedo call to prayer [Music] is coming back to the best building that our GPS coordinates are worth two racquets [Music] we wait until the end of the day hoping to see kids being picked up by parents but no one entered or exited the premises sensing we're being watched we sped out our search for the remaining fee buildings over the following few days trying to get a little closer to the school but there's this massive brick wall with barbed wire fencing all around it and they're just making it really really difficult to get to I mean it's obvious what we're doing here you should just get out of it very quickly and see kids in there [Music] so the best we can do is walk past this facility but it is really bizarre that there are kids there on a Sunday which suggests that this is not just a regular school he is now trying to get to another one of these buildings [Music] there it is I can see people moving inside Oh [Music] oh yeah [Music] [Music] we just mean side with two minutes and then a piece of now come which was twice to check on our past here we go again okay around the bar with Helena Mayweather nigga eyes just he's so so hard it's a very effective mechanism that the government had in place able to prevent any information from getting out it wasn't just the piece in uniforms we're also being followed by this white car and this gold car often by up to six plain-clothed police officers and 24/7 we always had one man in particular subtle as he was we spotted him stalking us wherever we went or just going slightly ridiculous now I'm gonna ask this guy where's gayness yeah yeah you wish my Egypt good to warm you wish me to control woman I know you're not on the phone you was I don't you know this is literally the first time you walked away from me you've always been following me just to eat Cerny Sakuya this is very strange behaviour which I don't you idiot eat way we will meet woman meeting can Donny don't ahem that fun gray shimmer we sound grown woman Perelman [Music] total denial our friend continue to follow us at a distance making it difficult to talk to people but on a nearby street one young weaker girl did speak for her own protection we've hidden her face what is wrong we didn't pandering to pacer and Emma the teacher had Shiva go to general funny destroy show your hand or Heights your foot they along another road in another abandoned village yet another multicolored castle appeared [Music] there's no doubt that in fighting Chang and in these schools a massive social engineering program is underway the Chinese government's goals are clear for this next generation of weekers to not be beggars to break all links to their culture their religion even their families until the only identity they have left is Chinese on one of our last days in Xinjiang we passed an elementary school full of weaker children [Music] before anyone could stop us we got a fleeting glimpse of how the Chinese government wants them to think but it was just a fleeting glimpse [Music] you you

Channel: VICE News

Views: 2,055,323

Rating: 4.6003218 out of 5

Keywords: chinas vanishing muslim, Uighur children, Isobel Yeung, chinas vanishing muslims vice, vice news uighurs, isobel yeung china, isobel yeung vice, xinjiang undercover, vice china uighurs, Xinjiang, they come for us at night hbo, China’s Uighur minority, Xinjiang region, China’s Orwellian surveillance, VICE News, VICE News Tonight, Uighur community, vice news tonight hbo, internment cam, china state surveillance, VICE on HBO, news, vice news 2019, china news, xi jinping

Id: v7AYyUqrMuQ

Length: 31min 47sec (1907 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 29 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/AFWUSA]

I’ve been to the Qinghai province in China, which is right above Tibet and in many places is very culturally Tibetan. One day we were talking with a local there they mentioned how sometimes there would be protests or small riots, and some kids would throw rocks or something. Nothing would happen for a while, then they would just disappear. It’s insane how much the government cracks down on any form of dissent out there.

[u/CryingLightning39]

BBC also got some reporters into the "re-education" camps in that muslim area.. Pretty good story. The officials were insisting it isn't prison because they allow them to paint pictures and dance. It had a very North Korea feel to it, where it was very obvious that a show was being put on for the press.

[u/ScorseseTheGoat86]

Straight outta 1984 with the cameras

[u/sirbagels]

What shocks me is that so many Chinese people at my university either have no idea this is happening, and if they know about it they say it's western propaganda.

[u/NYClock]

When BBC asked China ambassador to UK, Liu Xiaoming about the re-education center.

Urban: I want to move onto one or two of my other issues. What effect do you think it has on people in Hong Kong when they see the treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang. An estimated one million people, Muslims minorities…

Ambassador: Again you are exaggerating. I don't know where you get this one million people.

Urban: It is a UN estimate.

Ambassador: I don't think the UN has any report on this. There are education and training centres to help people who have been brainwashed by extremists to return to society, to earn their living, to train them on skills, language and the knowledge of the law, so they can protect their own interests.

Urban: Can we have access, can we see what is going on?

Ambassador: Of course, we invited journalists and diplomats to visit.

Urban: But we are hearing reports that what happens in there is an assault on their Muslim faith.

Ambassador: That is completely wrong.

Urban: that they are prevented from praying, they are told that as a backward religion …

Ambassador: These are all distortions, it is all made up, fake news, I would say. We respect people to have their freedom of religion. People are entitled to have their religion. And the important thing is, you are missing the big picture. The reason for these centres is to educate those young people who have been intoxicated by extremist ideas. And ever since these measures, there have been no extremist violent incidents in Xinjiang for the past three years, which means these measures have been successful.

http://www.chinese-embassy.org.uk/eng/tpxw/t1671788.htm

[u/LookAtThatMonkey]

Fuck man. That poor woman who's husband got 10 years and 5 of her kids separated in kindergartens across Xinjiang.

And the little girl at the end, you could hear her sadness when she told of her sister being away for 2 years.

The most interesting bit was the interview with the female farmer on the train and I think it says a lot about how they can get away with it. The Han Chinese don't see anything wrong with it. Until they can see past the Chinese RDF, I can't see anything changing.

Really saddening documentary.

[u/Mundo_Official]

The comments are people arguing over religion and which country is worse USA vs China.

None of the victims give a fuck about anything anyone has posted in these comments.

[u/altcoinbonanza]

This girl has serious balls is all I can say.

[u/UnrulyPeasant]

BTW, the dystopian, censorious Chinese tech mega-giant, tencent, is investing $300 million into reddit.