Report: Eight Years On, China’s Repression of the Uyghurs Remains Dire

The Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide released a report in January 2025, “Eight Years On, China’s Repression of the Uyghurs Remains Dire: How China’s Policies in the Uyghur Region Have and Have Not Changed.” The report is authored by Rian Thum, Senior Lecturer in East Asian History, at the University of Manchester.

The report seeks to improve our collective understanding of China’s ongoing repressive policies in the predominantly Uyghur province of Xinjiang in western China. The Simon-Skjodt Center released a report in 2021 detailing multiple crimes against humanity that the Chinese government had committed against the Uyghur population, a Turkic Muslim minority group, and expressing grave concern that the Chinese government may be committing genocide. 

Since then, detailed reporting on state policies has decreased as Chinese authorities increasingly restricted access to information. Using recent evidence from Chinese state documents, satellite imagery, and survivor testimony, as well as a synthesis of recent academic publications, the report aims to fill a knowledge gap about the current state of mass atrocities targeting the Uyghur community and other Turkic minorities in the Uyghur region. 

The report finds that, given the available information, all of the policies that led to accusations of mass atrocities in the Uyghur region continue, and some are expanding. These findings should prompt deeper research into the nature of mass atrocities facing the Uyghur population and spark urgent, effective responses. In particular, the report recommends further research into emerging repressive strategies, including the intense network of electronic and human surveillance, curbs on religious practice, and the destruction of cultural heritage. 

Supplemental Data

The report author, Rian Thum, collected the following supplemental data referenced in the report:

List of Boarding Schools

A list of boarding schools newly built or expanded with new dormitories in 2023 and 2024. The sources are Chinese government construction tenders (formal requests for bids from contractors on a project) and state-approved media, with links to the sources provided in the table. Some of the sites are geolocated by comparison using details from the tender or media sources.

• Boarding school and dormitory construction, 2023–24 (PDF)

List of Prisons and Kanshousuo

A list of prisons and kanshousuo, a type of internment facility, that have either been newly built or expanded from 2019 onward. Geolocation (associating names of documented facilities to exact coordinates) is based on the work and available sources on the Xinjiang Victims Database. Expansion and new construction dates are based on data satellite imagery, in most cases from Google Earth.

• Prison and kanshousuo construction and expansion, 2019–24 (PDF)

Estimate of total kanshousuo capacity

Using the list of kanshousuo identified by Xinjiang Victims Database from satellite imagery and government documents, this spreadsheet provides an estimate of total kanshousuo capacity in Xinjiang at Chinese government standards. Government standards, available at Archive Today, dictate cell capacity of eight or 16 prisoners for the two standard cell sizes. Cell sizes and numbers were identified from the unroofed outdoor section that is mandated for each cell and is visible in satellite imagery. Google Earth and Apple Maps were the sources for satellite imagery.

• Estimated kanshousuo capacity as of January 2025 (PDF)