The UNPO expresses deep concern following the testimony of Zhang Yabo, a former Chinese police officer who has come forward to expose the continued and systematic repression of Uyghurs in East Turkestan.
While the targeting and discrimination of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in East Turkestan is longstanding, it dramatically intensified around 2017. Since then, it is estimated that over one million Uyghurs across the region have been detained in so-called “reeducation camps”, in what constitutes one of the most extensive systems of mass arbitrary detention documented in recent history. In 2021, the United States designated China’s conduct as genocide, and in 2022 the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the persecution of Uyghurs may constitute crimes against humanity. However, since then repression has not abated, instead it has evolved in form.
The testimony of Zhang Yabo underscores this reality. A former officer who served within China’s security apparatus in the Hotan region from 2014 to 2023, Zhang gained direct experience of detention facilities and local policing before fleeing to Europe. His account, shared with Dr. Adrian Zenz, senior fellow director of China Studies at VOC, and reported by the German outlet Der Spiegel, details widespread abuses, including torture, rape, and deaths in custody. He also describes the systematic mobilisation of Uyghur men and women into state-directed forced labour, including agricultural work conducted under police supervision, which Beijing had previously denied.
Zhang estimates that, at the height of the crackdown, approximately a quarter of the adult population in his area was detained in re-education camps, in addition to those formally imprisoned. His testimony further indicates that individuals released from such facilities were often transferred directly into the criminal justice system and handed lengthy sentences. Meanwhile, police officers were expected to meet numerical targets for both detentions and labour transfers, with rewards for those who fulfilled their quotas and penalties for those who did not or who refused to participate in acts of brutality.
Zhang also sheds light on how the system has evolved in response to growing international scrutiny. Rather than being dismantled, the infrastructure of repression has undergone a deliberate transformation. Following leadership changes in late 2021, overt mass detention became less visible, while the use of formal prisons expanded and coercive labour practices continued. As noted by Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs, “the system of detention, forced labour, and abuse has not ended; it has been normalised and obscured.” These shifts have enabled authorities to project an image of change while maintaining large-scale deprivation of liberty.
Zhang’s decision to share his experience comes at great personal risk. In speaking out against the Chinese authorities, he is exposing not only himself, but also his family members who remain in East Turkestan, to retaliation.
China continues to operate one of the most far-reaching systems of transnational repression in the world, employing harassment, surveillance, arbitrary detention abroad, deportation, and threats against relatives to silence Uyghur voices in the diaspora. The experience of Abdulhakim Idris, Executive Director of the Center for Uyghur Studies in Washington, D.C., illustrates these dynamics. While travelling to Malaysia to present research, Idris was detained by immigration authorities upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur and subsequently deported without clear legal justification, in an incident widely attributed to Chinese pressure. A similar situation occurred in Indonesia the previous year. Idris has already faced threats against his life and sustained digital harassment in connection with his work as a scholar and advocate for Uyghur rights, and remains cut off from most of his family members detained in East Turkistan.
Such pressure extends beyond individuals. In some cases, governments have acted in ways that align with Beijing’s efforts. Earlier this month in Kazakhstan, activists protesting the treatment of Uyghurs and the fate of missing relatives were arrested and convicted on serious charges, in a case linked by human rights organisations to Chinese influence. In Thailand in early 2025, forty Uyghurs were forcibly returned to China despite offers of protection from other states. Across at least two dozen countries, credible evidence indicates varying degrees of cooperation with Chinese authorities in locating, monitoring, and repatriating Uyghurs who had sought safety abroad.
The UNPO calls on the international community to publicly and unequivocally condemn the ongoing persecution of Uyghurs in East Turkistan and to recognise transnational repression as an urgent and systemic threat. States must refuse to facilitate forced returns, protect those at risk within their jurisdictions, and ensure accountability for atrocity crimes. Human rights considerations must be central to all economic and diplomatic engagement with China.
Here is the statement from the World Uyghur Congress: https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/press-release-wuc-urges-action-as-new-testimony-exposes-hidden-repression/
