The “people’s war on terror”, also known as the “strike hard campaign”, was declared by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2014. Xi Jinping, the President of the CCP, implemented this campaign as a response to a terror attack within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) capital of Ürümqi. Jinping promised to “show no mercy” towards the Uyghur people suspected of terrorism. Since the attack, it is estimated that over three-million Uyghurs have been detained within “re-education camps”. Yet this not the full extent of the systematic oppression against the Uyghurs; it is reported that the CCP has implemented an intricate system of surveillance, spanning from biometrics to the tracking of smartphones within the XUAR to monitor and compromise the lives of those who may not yet be in custody and those who may be next to be lured within the camps.
THE INTEGRATED JOINT OPERATIONS PLATFORM
The application, known as the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), is being used within the XUAR in order to store the data of the majority of Uyghurs. This data includes physical traits like height and weight, to behavioural characteristics such as how much one may socialise with neighbours, to those who may use an above-average volume of electricity.
The NGO, Human Rights Watch, in partnership with German cybersecurity firm Cure53, were able to reverse engineer the IJOP midway through 2019, thereafter discovering the wide range of utilities it possesses. The policing app is said to trace Uyghurs, from the use of their vehicles to their ID cards, in addition to prompting XUAR officials to investigate any individual who they deem “suspicious”, when calculating the physical and behavioural characteristics. Reasons for investigation by police may include, but are not limited to, religious atmosphere, political affiliation, whether one may have apps on their phones such as WhatsApp and Viber, how long one may has travelled for, if one has lost one’s phone, or if one buys gas and is not the registered owner of the car. This may then eventually result in an individual being placed within a “re-education camp”, if officials who had interrogated the individual see fit – bereft of any legal procedure. The IJOP also creates virtual fences, restricting freedom of movement for Uyghurs. One example would be of the man, who had been released from a “re-education camp” just a week prior to when he was met with an alarm, and subsequently a visit to the police station when trying to access his local mall, where he was told to not go out in public.
The developer of the IJOP is reported to be a state-owned military contractor, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), who had set up a research facility within the Sydney University of Technology – who have stated that their work is under “peer review”. Yet, the CETC is not said to be the sole developer of the IJOP; a recent data leak from a police contractor SenseNets has found similar data within their system to those within the IJOP, which is said to trace 2.6 million people in The XUAR within a 24-hour period.
BIOMETRIC DATA
The IJOP also records biometric data in order to review whether an individual is “suspicious”. A large proportion of this data is thought to have been gathered through the “physicals for all” programme that occurred between 2016 and 2017 – a scheme that was purported to be a free health check-up. Fingerprints, iris scans, and blood types are said to be have been recorded of those living within the XUAR between the ages of twelve and sixty-five – yet those of “focus personnel”, who are said to possibly pose a threat, must participate within the program regardless of age, in addition to that of family members.
Thermo Fisher (TF), which specialises in Life Sciences, Analytic Instruments, Diagnostics, and Laboratory products, has participated in a large proportion of trade with China, amassing revenue of roughly two billion USDin 2017. It is reported that TF has sold equipment regarding gene mapping directly to XUAR authorities. According to a patent filing, TF products had already been used to trace DNA samples of Uyghurs, since 2013, along with those of Han and Tibetan heritage – in order to be able to distinguish each subset of people. TF has since halted its exports to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), at the beginning of 2019.
CORPORATE COMPLICITY
It was discovered in early 2021 that Chinese multinational technology company, Huawei, had designed a system that was able to identify those who may be seen to be of Uyghur origin, amongst a cluster of other individuals. Huawei has asked the Chinese patent authority, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), for the right to edit the patent. The patent was originally brought to the media’s attention by video-surveillance specialists, the Independent Video-Surveillance Research Group (IPVM), who stated that the patent describes methods of AI on how to identify varied kinds of characteristics of those who are filmed on the street. The IPVM had previously flagged such activity, where they had discovered a “confidential” document on the Huawei website, reporting on a supposed “Uyghur alert system” designed by the Chinese tech giants in collaboration with Chinese facial-recognition company, Megvii – where Huawei provided the hardware, and Megvii provided the software. Since this has was uncovered, an executive has resigned at Huawei over allegations that the company is involved in Uyghur repression, as well as World Cup winner, Antoine Griezmann, terminating his sponsorship with the Chinese telecoms firm.
Megvii was also found to be developing a facial-recognition system that is reported to regard “ethnicity classification” including those who may be classified as a Uyghur Muslim. In addition to this, a July 2019 patent by Chinese AI specialist, SenseTime, shows evidence of advanced visual recognition of Uyghurs, an example being the identification of Uyghurs with masks, beards, or sunglasses – as indicated by the patent.
Hikvision, a partially state-owned supplier of surveillance technology for civilian and military purposes, was also exposed in 2019 regarding their affiliation with Uyghur oppression within the XUAR. The digital technology company had been found to be advertising a type of AI camera, where within the product description, it states that it supports “racial attributes of the analyst’s target (such as Uighur, Han)”, yet one must question, out of all the fifty-six ethnicities that are recognized by the (PRC), what is the relevance in indicating that the camera is able to identify, the most targeted group within the whole nation, who are only roughly 0.9% of the population. Hikvision has since withdrawn their product description after being approached and questioned by the IPVM – although it had been up for seven months prior to the inquiry. Their main competitor, Dahua Technology has been discovered to include code into their software that explicitly states how such software is designed to identify Uyghurs, through the use of facial recognition. The code was published on their website (and then deleted soon after the IPVM contacted them), which had then been surfaced on Twitter towards the end of 2020, indicating that they too are just as involved as Hikvision in the oppression towards the Uyghur people. In 2016, both Hikvision and Dahua had struck a combined deal with XUAR authorities, for the purpose of governmental-backed projects, worth one-billion dollars – further emphasising how the extent of the persecution against.
The Chinese multinational conglomerate, Alibaba, has been shown to develop technology through its cloud computing business, indicating that they possess the software to identify Uyghurs from images and videos. This was initially brought to light by the IPVM at the end of 2020. This could be particularly harmful towards the Uyghur people with the ease at which any media platform may be able to flag and restrict posts from Uyghurs, further hindering their free speech not only in the PRC but across the world. Alibaba alleges that the software is only being used for content detections on the premise of safety, regarding issues such as pornography and terrorism. Although, the IPVM put forward that any mentions of Uyghur affiliations were only removed after they had published their report.
INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
The US Department of Commerce added twenty-eight Chinese organisations to its “entity list” in 2019, due to alleged participation in “activities contrary to the foreign policy interests of the US” – regarding the human rights violations towards Uyghur Muslims. The sanction restricts the export of items to those who are on the entity list from US companies, subject to US federal approval. One of the entities that has been effectively blacklisted is the video-surveillance manufacturer Hikvision, which is reported to have accumulated 30 thirty percent of their 2019 revenue from overseas. Others include their main competitor, Dahua, as well as companies that specialise in Artificial Intelligence, voice recognition, as well as security bureau, local and provincial.
In a broader sense regarding the US, The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act was written into federal law in June 2020. The act calls for the official condemnation for the human rights violations committed within the XUAR, demanding the end of imprisonment and harassment towards the Uyghur people. The act sets to impose Magnitsky style sanctions on high-ranking officials such as Zhu Hailan (the author of the China Cables) and Xinjiang CCP secretary Chen Quanguo – who is the first of China’s Politburo to face sanctions from the US. These Magnitsky style sanctions stem from the Magnitsky Act (written into US federal law in 2012), eliciting that the U.S would be able to impose sanctions on those who may commit human rights violations, which include freezing assets owned in the US and ban any entry onto its soil.
In contrast, some would say that the response from the UK has been regressive. Firstly, the House of Commons had voted against reconsidering any trade deals with any country committing genocide in mid-January of 2021 – allowing the UK to continue free trade with the PRC. Secondly, City Hall’s London and Partners, in addition to the UK Department of International Trade, has been accused of attempting to lure the Chinese AI company, iFlyTek to expand into London, allegedly holding talks halfway through 2020. The AI firm is reported to have links with the CCP, and heavy involvement in the persecution of Uyghurs, due to its large database, with roughly 900 million users, and its specialism in voice-recognition. They are also currently on the US entity list. Furthermore, the UK continues to endorse trade with Hikvision. Hikvision was also invited to attend a Security and Policing trade fair, hosted in the UK in March 2020, after the US accused Hikvision of aiding with the human rights violations within the XUAR.
When considering the situation in the XUAR, no affirmative action has been taken as of yet towards countering the alleged genocide. Does this indicate that we are all too weak to stand up against human rights abuses, or that we simply do not care enough?
Thomas Coffey is currently a gap year student, who is looking to study European Social and Political studies at UCL in September. He is interested in International Relations and human rights, and specifically how this may affect business.