Last year China’s president said Xinjiang had scored “unprecedented achievements” in developing its economy and improving people’s lives. The reality is much grimmer
Authorities had long been troubled by occasional violence involving Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic group that makes up more than 40% of Xinjiang’s population of 26m. Over the past five years China has demolished thousands of Xinjiang’s mosques, thrown a million of its people into camps for “re-education”, placed the rest under high-tech surveillance and cut their links with the outside world.
Xinjiang’s economy can be divided into two halves. Much of its wealth and importance for China derives from its abundant supplies of energy. Related industries—oil and gas extraction, power generation and chemicals—account for more than half the region’s industrial output. As in other resource-rich parts of the world, they are relatively disconnected from society. They depend more on capital from large state-owned firms than on labour, and are concentrated in the sparsely populated north.
Human-rights groups sense ulterior motives. Analysis of satellite imagery points to factories being built alongside many of the region’s expanding prisons. Testimonies from inmates suggest that forced labour is common. Many of those released from re-education camps seem to be on indefinite probation, compelled to work wherever they are assigned.
A five-minute drive away, though, is a more sinister sight: two police checkpoints restrict access to another textile park, managed by the government of Akto county in Kizilsu prefecture, which borders Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Nearby is a cluster of dormitory-like buildings behind the high walls of what an Australian think-tank has identified as a re-education facility.
The third element, promoting tourism, could reap considerable benefits. Revenues from tourism already amounted to a quarter of Xinjiang’sbefore the pandemic. It also helps advertise China’s success in imposing stability. This year about 200m tourists are expected. By 2025 the government wants to double that number to 400m, almost all from China.
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