“Orwellian” is a much-abused word; but in the case of Xinjiang, in China, its use is entirely apposite. Authorities’ grip on the resource-rich, violence-stricken north-western region – and most of all on the lives of its Uighur Muslims – grows tighter by the day. Orwell would recognise the relentlessness of surveillance, the innovative means employed, and the linguistic distortions that underline rather than disguise the exercise of power.
“The happiest Muslims in the world live in Xinjiang,” a propaganda official there claimed this year. Beijing points to high investment in the region and, for example, extra points for Uighur students in college entrance exams. But a series of recent reports have unveiled a digital police state. Technological advances such as facial recognition software and biometric data collection are married to a vast and expanding security apparatus, a bureaucracy that inserts itself into all parts of life, and traditional hard power: shows of force by heavily armed police.
