Report: China tracked Uighurs, locked them in camps

China prepared a manual for how to secretly run the Xinjiang reeducation camps for religious and ethnic minorities and prevent escapes, according to a new report. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published classified documents on Sunday revealing how the Chinese government used artificial intelligence to track the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities and carry out indoctrination inside the camps since 2017.

What’s in the report? The documents include a 2017 order by Zhu Hailun, the former deputy Communist Party chief in Xinjiang, describing the layout of the camps. The indoctrination program used a point-based system to track inmates’ “compliance with discipline” and performance in sessions on Mandarin-language skills, manners education, and labor training. Security guidelines required double-locked doors inside the premises and strictly controlled meal and toilet breaks to prevent residents from escaping. The government detained people using the intelligence-sharing Integrated Joint Operations Platform, a web-based platform that tracked suspicious behavior. China has condemned the documents as a “fabrication.”

Dig deeper: Read the ICIJ report. Then, read my report in World Tour on the reach of the intelligence-sharing platform.