The Sydney Morning Herald reported that files were published by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which has revealed a chain of command over camps in the western region of Xinjiang leading all the way to Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.
The images are at odds with Chinese claims that Uyghurs entered the camps as “schools that help people free themselves from extremism”. In one photo, officials dressed in military uniform point their guns at a prisoner kneeling at the feet of people dressed in riot gear. Another shows a line of women in yellow uniforms as officials stand close by.
China’s Foreign Ministry rejected the leaked documents “as cobbled-together material” by “anti-China forces smearing Xinjiang.” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin has said the media is “spreading lies and rumors,” reported DW news.
“It’s always possible to fake documents. It’s a lot harder to fake images, and it’s even harder to fake this amount of image material and this type of image material,” Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow in China studies at the US-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation said.
Human rights campaigners have accused the ruling Communist Party of China of committing widespread abuses in Xinjiang in the name of security, steps which include confining people to internment camps, forcibly separating families and carrying out forced sterilization.