The Xinjiang Data Project

The Xinjiang Data Project

The Xinjiang Data Project brings together rigorous, empirical research on the human rights situation for Uyghurs and other non-Han nationalities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in western China. It focuses on a core set of topics including mass internment camps, surveillance and emerging technologies, forced labour and supply chains, the ‘re-education’ campaign, deliberate cultural destruction and other human rights issues.

Drawing on open source data including satellite imagery, Chinese government documents, official statistics and a range of authoritative reports and academic studies, the Xinjiang Data Project documents the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing program of human rights abuses and tech-enhanced authoritarianism in Xinjiang, and explores its global implications.

Explore the MapExplore the Chart
Explainer
'Cultivating friendly forces' report
The Chinese Communist Party’s influence operations in the Xinjiang Diaspora
Explainer
'Assessing the impact of CCP information operations related to Xinjiang' report
Explainer
Borrowing mouths to speak on Xinjiang
Explainer
'#StopXinjiang Rumors' report
The CCP’s decentralised disinformation campaign
Explainer
'The architecture of repression' report
Unpacking Xinjiang's governance
Explainer
‘Family de-planning’ report
The coercive campaign to drive down indigenous birth-rates in Xinjiang
Explainer
Disinformation on Xinjiang
The CCP, fringe media and US social media platforms play a role in shaping the Chinese government's global narrative on Xinjiang.
Explainer
Xinjiang Data Project first quarterly update - December 2020
Explainer
Exploring Xinjiang's detention system
The world's most comprehensive database: 380+ facilities
Explainer
'Uyghurs for sale' report
‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang.
Explainer
Cultural erasure
Tracing the destruction of Uyghur and Islamic spaces in Xinjiang
Explainer
How Uyghur cultural practices are being politicized and co-opted in Xinjiang
This article examines the inscription of meshrep (mäshräp), an important Uyghur cultural practice, on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage and its subsequent co-optation by the Chinese government to ‘counter-extremism’ and promote national integration.
Explainer
How companies profit from forced labour in Xinjiang
'They told her that if she didn’t sign, she would be sent back to the camp.'
Explainer
Transforming Uyghur domestic space
China’s "Three News" housing campaign in Xinjiang
Explainer
How mass surveillance works in Xinjiang
Reverse engineering the police mass surveillance app

Featured Resources

Scroll Down
Research ReportCultivating friendly forces: The Chinese Communist Party’s influence operations in the Xinjiang Diasporaby Lin Li and James Leibold
— Jul 6, 2022
Xinjiang
Research ReportThe global implications of “re-education” technologies in northwest Chinaby Darren Byler
— Jun 8, 2020
TechnologySurveillanceRe-education
Research ReportChina: Baseless Imprisonments Surge in Xinjiangby Human Rights Watch
— Feb 24, 2021
Detention
Press InvestigationInside Xinjiang’s Prison State: Survivors of China’s campaign of persecution reveal the scope of the devastationby Ben Mauk
— Feb 26, 2021
XinjiangEyewitness
ASPI ReportDocumenting Xinjiang’s detention systemby Nathan Ruser
— Sep 24, 2020
DetentionRe-educationForced Labour+1
Research ReportNew evidence for China's political re-education campaign in Xinjiangby Adrian Zenz
— May 15, 2018
DetentionRe-educationOfficial Documents
Research ReportThe Elephant in the XUAR Pt2: Brand new prisons, expanding old prisons, & hundreds of thousands of new inmatesby Gene Bunin
— Jan 4, 2021
Detention
Research ReportIf you don’t know how, just learn: Chinese housing and the transformation of Uyghur domestic spaceby Timothy Grose
— Jul 6, 2020
Re-educationResidential DemolitionCulture+1
Research ReportHow Uyghur cultural practices are being politicized and co-opted in Xinjiangby Professor Rachel Harris
— Jan 16, 2020
Cultural Destruction
ASPI ReportCultural erasure: Tracing the destruction of Uyghur and Islamic spaces in Xinjiangby Nathan Ruser, Dr James Leibold, Kelsey Munro, Tilla Hoja
— Sep 25, 2020
Cultural DestructionCultural GenocideCulture+1
See all Resources