In the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China has taken mass surveillance to the extreme. In a new investigation, the NGO Human Rights Watch illustrates how, thanks to sophisticated technologies, the police track the slightest act and gesture of Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim minorities, in the name of the fight against terrorism. Maya Wang, researcher specializing in China at Human Rights Watch, deciphers the methods used by the authorities.
RFI: Does your new investigation provide proof that in Xinjiang, all you have to do is listen to suras from the Koran on your phone to be arrested?
Maya Wang : That’s it. We scientifically analyzed a database used by the police. Of course, we document crimes against humanity committed in Xinjiang since 2017. We knew that residents were detained and imprisoned just because their phones contained Islamic sermons. But this new investigation shows that the authorities consider the recording of sermons and recitations of the Koran to be dangerous and extremist. We identified it in one of their official databases, and now we understand how the monitoring works.
What does this database of the Chinese authorities to which you were able to access contain?
We reviewed a list of 50,000 files labeled violent or extremist by the police. 9% of these files include violent content, bloody scenes such as throat cutting. 4% contain calls for violence. But this is still a very small proportion. More than half, 57% to be precise, are just simple religious texts, including recitations of the Koran, which are not extremist or violent.
In the eyes of the Chinese police, the words “ violent ” Or “ extremists » mean what exactly?
This is precisely the problem in China and particularly in Xinjiang: the Chinese government claims to fight against terrorism and extremism, but these terms are defined in a very vague way. Often it is neither the dissemination of violent or extremist content nor calls for violence. If you criticize the government, you can be accused of being an extremist. Anti-terrorism laws are extremely vaguely worded in China. But in Xinjiang, the authorities even go beyond these laws and often act illegally. Under the counter-terrorism banner, almost everything is considered terrorism.
Can we say that the smartphone facilitates totalitarian spying on citizens?
This is what our study shows. The smartphone has become the best way to monitor the population. What is shocking in our investigation is also the extent and speed with which the police are able to analyze all the content of telephones. In Urumqi, the capital (3.5 million inhabitants), they examined 1.2 million phones no less than 11 million times in just nine months. Imagine how many agents would be needed if this had to be done manually. It would be almost impossible, but technology allows you to check the contents of your laptop very quickly. Xinjiang’s story demonstrates why surveillance is problematic. We can repress a society with simple and sophisticated technical means. Each time, the State goes a step further. At each stage, freedom is further eradicated in a very intrusive way.
Human Rights Watch calls for an international and independent investigation in Xinjiang, but how to convince China to accept it?
Last October, the UN Human Rights Council wanted to pass a resolution to discuss the situation in Xinjiang. But it failed because too many states were against. But we hope that in the next sessions, starting in June, governments like France will lead the movement to demand a resolution, to discuss and to establish a mechanism that will allow scrutiny of human rights abuses. man committed by China, especially in Xinjiang. It can be done, the question is just whether there is the will to do it within the Human Rights Council.
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