Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China.
On Tuesday, Chinese officials abruptly announced that most of the Uighur Muslims held in detention camps in the country’s western Xinjiang region had been released. The claim—which was not supported by any evidence and almost immediately challenged by inmates’ relatives, foreign governments and human rights groups—marks another step in China’s efforts to deflect international criticism of its repressive policies in Xinjiang, where at least 1 million Uighurs are believed to be incarcerated.
Describing the detention facilities as “education and training” centers and the inmates as “students,” Alken Tuniaz, the vice chairman of the Xinjiang government, told reporters that over 90 percent of detainees had “returned to society and returned to their families and are living happily.” Shohrat Zakir, the Xinjiang government chairman, added that “more than 90 percent of the graduates have found satisfactory jobs with good incomes,” according to the Associated Press.