Xinjiang

lleged "re-education" efforts began in 2014 and were expanded in 2017.[95][96] Chen ordered that the camps "be managed like the military and defended like a prison."[14] At this time, internment camps were built for the housing of students of the "re-education" programs, most of whom were Uyghurs. The Chinese government did not acknowledge their existence until 2018 and called them "vocational education and training centers."[95][97] From 2019, the government began referring to them as "vocational training centers." The camps tripled in size from 2018 to 2019 despite the Chinese government stating that most of the detainees had been released.[The Chinese government has engaged in a propaganda campaign to defend its actions in Xinjiang.[99][100][101][102] China initially denied the existence of the Xinjiang internment camps and attempted to cover-up their existence.[103] In 2018, after being forced to admit by widespread reporting that the Xinjiang internment camps exist, the Chinese government initiated a campaign to portray the camps as humane and to deny that human rights abuses occurred in Xinjiang.[104] In 2020 and 2021, the propaganda campaign expanded due to rising international backlash against government policies in Xinjiang,[105] with the Chinese government worrying that it no longer had control of the narrativ

Story added by martinbing on June 15, 2021