Let’s talk about the Uighurs.
They’re an ethnic minority in China who say they’re victims of horrific crimes.
The UN thinks a million Uighurs are being detained in camps — maybe more.
A day before he left office the American secretary of state called it a genocide.
China says it is putting Uighurs in camps but that they're job training centres and that the accusations of abuse are a lie.
So who are the Uighurs? Why is the Chinese government putting so many people in camps? And should the world be doing more about it?
So much of what’s going on with the Uighurs is hard to pin down.
Journalists and researchers can’t get to them — and China says there’s nothing to see anyway.
Still, there’s a lot of stuff we do know. Let’s start with the basics.
The Uighurs are a Turkic ethnic group. There are more than 11 million of them.
Most are Muslims, they have their own language and they live in what’s called the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
That was in the late 1800s.
And here’s Xinjiang on a map — it’s huge. Three times the size of France.
It’s got oil, gas and a lot of the world’s cotton comes from here.
Plus a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative is being built through it.
It’s a multi-billion-dollar network of highways and railways to connect China to Europe and beyond.
And there has been trouble there.
Uighurs have often protested about being oppressed. Many have called for their own state. And some have organised attacks.
While China hosted the Olympics a series of bus bombings were claimed by a group called Turkistan Islamic Party.
In 2009 there were riots and fighting between the Uighurs and Han Chinese and 200 people died, most of them ethnic Han.
And in 2014 a bombing at a market and a knife attack at a railway station killed 30 people and injured more than 200.
That’s when China really came down hard on Xinjiang.
So what are we seeing?
Well, the accusation is that China’s trying to exterminate Uighur culture and their identity.
And activists and Uighurs who’ve left Xinjiang say China’s doing it in all kinds of ways — forced labour, children being indoctrinated ...
… women being sterilised or forced to have abortions.
It’s a long list of allegations. And then there’s all those camps.
We know there are hundreds of them in Xinjiang.
Activists say Uighurs from all walks of life — professors, doctors, public leaders, ordinary people too — are all detained without a warrant, charge or trial.
Even loyal supporters of the Communist Party haven’t been spared.
Getting a look inside one of these places hasn’t been easy.
Although Chinese state media have released their version of what goes on there.
But these camps don’t sound like places you’d want to end up in.
An Australian think tank found that Uighurs are being forced to work in factories in Xinjiang and beyond that are in the supply chains of well-known global brands — though brands like Apple and Nike have denied using forced labour.
Many Uighurs also say they’ve been tortured.
Some testified before a US congressional committee.
The list of abuses seems endless.
Even the Uighurs who’ve managed to stay out of these detention centres aren’t free, not really.
There are thousands of checkpoints, security cameras everywhere. Many use facial recognition.
Rights groups say security forces also put QR codes outside Uighur homes.
There’s even an app.
Human Rights Watch says police use it to monitor people.
China, though, says it’s not doing anything wrong.
There are no human rights violations and this is all about developing Xinjiang's economy, maintaining peace and stability.
China says most Uighurs have been released from re-education camps and found jobs.
This report, though, found that detention camps are being expanded. It puts the number at more than 380. That’s about 40% higher than previous estimates.
There was even a time when Chinese officials denied the camps existed at all.
And Uighur activists who’ve left Xinjiang say China just wants to shut this story down.
They accuse the government of going after family members they’ve left behind.
Rushan, who we’ve been speaking to, has lived it. Her sister went missing for more than two years.
Rights groups have been saying this stuff for years. There are heaps of investigations online.
So what’s being done about it?
Well, at the United Nations dozens of countries have condemned what’s happening to the Uighurs but they can’t exactly pass a resolution against China because it has veto power in the Security Council.
Uighurs even asked the International Criminal Court to investigate but that went nowhere because the ICC has no jurisdiction in China.
Plus China has a way of throwing its weight around.
Multi-billion-dollar investment projects around the world are seen as helping to keep countries onside.
Still, you can’t keep everybody quiet. A UK tribunal was pretty blunt about its findings.
The US has also blacklisted Chinese officials and blocked certain imports from Xinjiang.
And just before President Trump left the White House his secretary of state called what China’s doing a genocide. President Biden’s people agree.
It’s one thing to call something a genocide, it’s another to prove it.
The voices demanding justice are growing louder and there are more of them all the time. That’s not something that China or the world can easily tune out.
Al Jazeera’s covered this story a lot.
I recommend watching the 101 East documentary Nowhere to Call Home, which we used clips from in this episode.
You can find that on YouTube. I’ll see you next week.