Database Entry: ‘Will they let us live?’ Inside Xinjiang, survivors of China’s internment camps speak
Forced Assimilation

‘Will they let us live?’ Inside Xinjiang, survivors of China’s internment camps speak

December 17, 2020
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What the minders preferred to present of Xinjiang was an illusion of normalcy: Uighurs mingled with Han Chinese at the night market in Kashgar. They invited shoppers to eat samples at a naan museum in Ürümqi. They sang about ethnic unity and “never splitting apart” in slick music videos played at tourist sites.

In Korla, minders led reporters to a plaza to watch dozens of mostly Han Chinese middle-aged residents wearing Uighur costumes, dancing to a Uighur song. “Aren’t these uncles and aunties cute?” one of the minders said.