China spending spike on Xinjiang ‘re-education camps’ revealed amid UN scrutiny of rights record
- Outlays by some public security and justice departments at least double, study finds
An extra 20 billion yuan (US$2.89 billion) was spent on building security facilities in China’s far western region of Xinjiang last year as authorities implemented a controversial re-education camp programme, a new study has estimated.
The programme was also a focus of a periodic UN human rights review in Geneva on Tuesday, with many Western countries urging China to halt the internments targeting citizens of ethnic minorities and allow independent observers unhindered access to inspect the camps.
Watch: China grilled over Uygur mass detention during UN review
In August, another UN panel said camps in the region were holding up to a million Uygurs and other Muslims, subjecting them to enforced political indoctrination.
But Chinese authorities described the camps as “vocational training centres” used in the country’s religious de-radicalisation campaign. Chinese officials also denied that any citizens were detained arbitrarily and that the UN’s figure was accurate.
There is still no word from Beijing nor Urumqi on the scale of the re-education camp programme.