Introduction
The following section provides a constantly updated list of videos from international media sources that examine the operation of re-education camps and other forms of state-led political oppression in Xinjiang. These videos dive deep into both first-hand and second-hand accounts of the situation in Xinjiang and feature the work of investigative journalists documenting evidence through secretive filming and recording testimonies of both victims and state officials. Many of the videos here also contain footage of the re-education camps and their interiors.
International Media
Independent Films
 | Bazla Samin, 2022A Song of ResistanceA Song of Resistance tells the story of Yerbakyt Otarbay, a Kazakh victim of the Chinese ‘re-education’ center. Through animated sequences, the film delves into his traumatic memories of being forcibly detained in a ‘re-education’ center. The film witnesses him grappling with the emotional turmoil of being separated from his family. The film is available to view on request.The flipbook, inspired by the documentary film, can be viewed here. Length: 19 minutes 32 seconds, Year of Publication: 2022 |
Interviews
These videos show interviews with various Uyghurs around the world. They include previous detainees who have escaped abroad and naturalized citizens elsewhere who continue to resist the Chinese government.
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VICE News, 27 April 2020The Uighur Journalists Reporting On China —from Washington DCVICE’s Isobel Young interviews the journalists working for Radio Free Asia from Washington DC, who report on the persecution of Uyghurs in China on the only Uyghur-speaking radio station outside of CCP control. This video shows that various attempts by journalists to interview Chinese authorities in Xinjiang usually receive hostile responses. Length: 7 minutes |
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VICE News, 17 February 2020How China Targets Muslims for ‘Re-Education’ Camps — and Spies on Their FamiliesVICE’s Isobel Young interviews Asiye Abdulaheb, a Uyghur-Dutch woman who leaked a cache of documents detailing brutal practices within Chinese re-education camps and reasons officials cited to detain individuals. Length: 10 minutes |
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VICE News, 25 November 2019Former Detainees Describe Daily Routine Inside China’s ‘Re-education Camps’ (Part 2)VICE’s Isobel Yeung interviews former detainees inside Chinese re-education camps, where they recall their horrible living conditions as well as the activities they were forced to take part in on a daily basis. Length: 2 minutes |
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VICE News, 25 November 2019Former Detainees Describe Daily Routine Inside China’s ‘Re-education Camps’ (Part 1)VICE’s Isobel Yeung interviews former detainees inside Chinese re-education camps, where they describe the methods of torture they were subject to. Length: 2 minutes |
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BBC, 25 November 2019China’s Secret ‘Brainwashing’ CampsThrough examining leaked documents and interviews with past detainees, BBC details China’s systematic brainwashing of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in a network of high-security prison camps for the first time. Length: 4 minutes |
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Doha Debates, 21 August 2019Uighur Refugees: Will I See My Family Again?Interviews with Nur’iman Abdureshid and Ferkat Jawdat, former detainees within Chinese re-education camps who escaped the United States, reveal the ordeal they have been subject to as well as their uncertain futures. Length: 5 minutes |
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BBC, 5 July 2019Xinjiang: China, Where Are My Children?BBC research provides new evidence that children in Xinjiang are being systematically separated from their families. In interviews with over 60 Uyghur parents, they discuss their children who have disappeared and even whole families targeted by authorities. Length: 10 minutes |
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Wallstreet Journal, 22 March 2019First Detention, Now Demolition: China Remakes Its Muslim RegionThis Wallstreet Journal report explores the utilization of extrajudicial detention of minorities in Xinjiang and the demolition of cultural and religious sites. The interview provides a look into the creation and maintenance of the current surveillance state in the region. The reporters interview Gulghehra Hoja, reporter and activist in exile, about the changes she’s seen in Xinjiang throughout the years. Length: 8 minutes |
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The Atlantic, 27 November 2018China is Surveilling and Threatening Uighurs in the U.S.This video first provides a background of ethnic tensions between Han Chinese and Uyghurs in Xinjiang, before diving into an interview with Tahir Iman, an Uyghur who came to the US in 2017 after fears of his arrest. He now works as an activist spreading awareness of internment camps in Xinjiang, where he and his colleagues continue to receive threats from the PRC Government to stop what they are doing. Length: 9 minutes |
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The Wall Street Journal, 20 August 2018Life Inside China’s ‘Re-Education’ CampsThrough interviews with escaped detainees, The Wall Street Journal reveals what goes on inside China’s growing network of internment camps in Xinjiang, such as the type of propaganda disseminated and the activities detainees are forced to take part in. Length: 4 minutes |
Investigative Reports
These videos show firsthand accounts of investigative journalists as they recount their observations in Xinjiang, most of them going undercover.
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The Telegraph, 15 June 2021Inside XinjiangIn this 2021 three-part The Telegraph exclusive, reporter Sophie Yen travels to Xinjiang to document the extrajudicial detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. In the first episode, she first traces of Uyghur heritage sites, including mosques, plaques, and cemeteries, that have been destroyed to pave a room for lucrative tourist projects. Interventions made by “Chinese agents” during the filming of footage can be observed, surrounding the camera crew in dozens as soon as they were spotted at a Uyghur pilgrimage sites. In the second episode, Yen focuses on the prevalence of the security institutions in Xinjiang, including multiple checkpoints, police patrols, and detention facilities or “vocational camps.” Her team’s filming of the facilities again attracted local police intervention. In the third episode, Yen recounts her trip in Xinjiang, reflecting on the multiple encounters she and her cameraman encountered with Chinese authorities who tailed their moves for hours and harassed them in large numbers. Length: 26 minutes |
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Channel 4 News, 01 October 2020Uyghur persecution: Evidence of new detention facilitiesChannel 4 News offers one of the first reports from inside Xinjiang after Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted. The reporter follows up on the implementation of the September 2020 whitepaper “Employment and Labor Rights in Xinjiang” via site visits to factories and farms. The team compares new construction and changes to the overall population from the last time they were reporting there a year ago. The piece concludes with separate interviews from He Xiangdon, Chinese ambassador to Ireland, and Aziz Isa Elkun, an Uyghur human rights campaigner, regarding vocational training centers and allegations of forced labor practices in Xinjiang. Length: 10 minutes |
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CBC, 26 April 2020Inside China’s Digital GulagCBC’s The Passionate Eye undercover team investigates the Chinese government’s collaboration with technology firms to build extensive systems of mass social surveillance. Length: 45 minutes |
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PBS, 7 April 2020China UndercoverPBS’ FRONTLINE investigates the Chinese regime’s mass imprisonment of Muslims, and its use and testing of sophisticated surveillance technology against the Uyghur community. Length: 45 minutes |
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ABC, 15 July 2019How China Is Creating the World’s Largest PrisonABC’s Four Corners investigates disturbing evidence of how China is effectively operating the world’s largest prison. Length: 4 minutes |
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VICE News, 29 June 2019China’s Vanishing Muslims: Undercover In The Most Dystopian Place In The WorldVICE’s Isobel Young goes undercover as a tourist to for access to the Xinjiang region, where she experienced China’s Orwellian surveillance and harassment firsthand. Length: 32 minutes |
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BBC, 18 June 2019Inside China’s ‘Thought Transformation’ CampsBBC reporters discuss their findings after given permission to access highly secure facilities thought to be holding more than a million Muslims in China’s western region of Xinjiang. Length: 12 minutes |
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CNN, 8 May 2019China Tries to Thwart CNN Investigation into Detention CampsCNN’s Matt Rivers explains why his investigation into Chinese facilities are important, and the pushback he has received from Chinese authorities. Length: 6 minutes |
Video Explainers
These videos provide an overview of current events in Xinjiang, from the background of Xinjiang as a part of China and the ethnic tensions between Han Chinese and Uyghurs, to the process of how the PRC Government has turned Xinjiang into a surveillance state as well as the detainment of millions of Uyghurs.
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The Economist, 9 July 2019How China is crushing the UighursThis video highlights the PRC Government’s current efforts to detain millions of Uyghurs while setting up a state of constant surveillance within Uyghur communities. It also explains the geopolitical importance of Xinjiang to China’s foreign policy. Length: 9 minutes |
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Vox, 7 May 2019China’s secret internment campsThis video from Vox provides satellite evidence that China has been constructing and continuing to construct internment camps detaining Uyghurs. It also describes the ordeals experienced by detainees and responses from the international community. Length: 9 minutes |
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BBC, 24 October 2018China’s Hidden CampsBBC gathers new evidence that China is building a vast network of internment camps for its Muslim population in the western region of Xinjiang. Length: 4 minutes |
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The Economist, 24 October 2018China: facial recognition and state controlThe Economist presents the various technologies utilized by the PRC Government in creating the police state in Xinjiang. Length: 6 minutes |
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ABC, 18 September 2018Exposing China’s Digital Dystopian DictatorshipABC analyzes China’s sophisticated system of government surveillance and the social credit system. Length: 27 minutes |
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The Wallstreet Journal, 20 December 2017Life Inside China’s Total Surveillance StateThis Wallstreet Journal video explores what life is like under the current surveillance system in Xinjiang. From marketplaces to schools to homes, journalists chat with individuals living in Xinjiang to get a sense of what life is like for them and how they are impacted by the increased securitization of the region. This video complements the article Twelve Days in Xinjiang: How China’s Surveillance State Overwhelms Daily Life both produced by the same journalist. Length: 8 minutes |