Xinjiang Vocational Education and Training Centers

Picture of Ürümqi, capital of the Xinjiang Province

The Xinjiang Vocational Education and Training Centers are facilities operated by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region government in China. These

facilities were built in response to a series of terrorist attacks by an insurgency of Islamist separatists, referred to as the Xinjiang Conflict. China accuses the United States of having supported these terrorists, similar to how the CIA cultivated extremist proxies in Operation Cyclone which later evolved into Al Qaeda (see the terrorism section in the XUAR page).

While the West carries out its so-called "war on terror" with bombs, China has taken a different approach; by investing in vocational and educational facilities, the Chinese government seeks to offer a more stable and prosperous life to would-be recruits into such extremist organizations. Following a critical assessment by the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) released on August 31, 2022, the People's Republic of China released a report accusing the assessment of misrepresenting China's laws and policies. The report documented the numerous terror attacks in Xinjiang and coming out of Xinjiang and laid out the policies of the VETCs so as to stress the soundness of their adherence to the principles of human rights protection.

Historical and material context of the Autonomous Region

Location of Xinjiang Province (in red) in the People's Republic of China

The region known as Xinjiang (新疆, literally meaning New Frontier) has been an inseparable part of China since the Han Dynasty in 60 BCE, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was established in 1955 under the People's Republic of China. The vast areas both north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, called the Western Regions in ancient times, were in close contact with the Central Plains as early as the pre-Qin period (c. 2100-221 BC). With the establishment of the unified feudal dynasties Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (206 BC-AD 220), multi-ethnic unification has been the norm in China’s historical development. In 60 BC, the government of the Western Han Dynasty established the Western Regions Frontier Command in Xinjiang, officially making Xinjiang a part of Chinese territory.

The Emergence of the Autonomous Region

Ancient History

The region in which we currently know as Xinjiang became part of the Han dynasty in 60 BCE. Since then, the region has been populated by Han Chinese since this time.

The Republic of China

After Nicolas II tried to conscript Kazakh and Kyrgyz people into the First World War in 1916, they attacked Russian settlers and then fled into Xinjiang.

Demographics

The Uyghur People

Xinjiang has been a multi-ethnic region since ancient times. Down the ages, ethnic groups of various kinds have lived in the region and communicated with each other. By the end of the 19th century, 13 ethnic groups – the Uygur, Han, Kazak, Mongolian, Hui, Kirgiz, Manchu, Xibe, Tajik, Daur, Uzbek, Tatar, and Russian – had settled in Xinjiang, with the Uyghurs having the largest population.

The Uyghur ethnic group came into being through a long process of migration and ethnic integration though they are not descendants of the Turks, instead, they are the descendants of the nomadic Dingling (丁零) tribe Mongolia. In 552 CE a clan of the emerging Dingling tribe established a Turkic Khanate in the Dunggar Basin in northern Xinjiang. In 744, the Uygur Alliance led by Guli Pei Luo, with the cooperation of the army of the Tang Dynasty, overthrew the Turkic Khanate and established the Mobei Uyghur Khanate. Historically as a way to resist oppression and slavery by the Turks, the Ouigour people (ancestors to the current-day Uyghur) united with some of the Tiele tribes to form the Ouigour tribal alliance.

After the Uyghur Khanate suffered a major defeat in 840, some of them moved inland to live among the Han people, while the rest of the surviving Uyghurs were divided into three sub-groups. One of which moved to the Turpan Basin and the modern Jimsar region, where they founded the Gaochang Uygur Kingdom. Another moved to the Hexi Corridor, where they merged with local ethnic groups to become what was later known as the Yugu people. The third sub-group moved to the west of Pamir, scattered in areas from Central Asia to Kashgar, and joined the Karluk and Yagma peoples in founding the Karahan Kingdom. There they merged with the Han people in the Turpan Basin and the Yanqi, Qiuci, Yutian, Shule, and other peoples in the Tarim Basin to form the main body of the modern Uygur group.

Rise of religious terrorism

The historical multireligious nature of Xinjiang

In primitive society, the residents of Xinjiang once followed a primitive religion from which Shamanism evolved. Later, a succession of religions popular in the East and the West were introduced into Xinjiang via the Silk Road, the first of which was Zoroastrianism.

Around the first century BC, Buddhism was introduced into Xinjiang and gradually became the major religion, coexisting with many other religions. From the 4th to the 10th century, Buddhism reached its peak, while in the same period Zoroastrianism proliferated throughout Xinjiang, particularly in the Turpan area. Around the fifth century, Taoism was introduced into Xinjiang, becoming prevalent mainly in Turpan and Hami. It spread to most parts of Xinjiang and experienced a revival during the Qing Dynasty.

In the sixth century, Manichaeism and Nestorianism were introduced into Xinjiang. From the 10th to the 14th century, Nestorianism flourished as the Uyghur and some other peoples converted to it in many parts of Xinjiang. In the late ninth and early 10th century, Islam was introduced into southern Xinjiang, changing the religious profile of Xinjiang again. After the Karahan Khanate accepted Islam, in the mid-10th century it launched a religious war against the Buddhist Kingdom of Yutian, and the war lasted for more than 40 years. In the early 11th century, the Karahan Khanate conquered Yutian and imposed Islam in that region. Thereafter, Islam dominated southern Xinjiang while Buddhism dominated northern Xinjiang. In the mid-14th century, the rulers of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate spread Islam to the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, the Turpan Basin and Hami by war and compulsion. By the early 16th century many religions coexisted in Xinjiang, with Islam being the predominant religion. Beginning in the 18th century, Protestantism, Catholicism, and the Eastern Orthodox Church were introduced into Xinjiang. Islam has ever since been the principal religion in Xinjiang, coexisting with a number of other religions.

Modern Religious Extremism and the East Turkestan Movement

At the turn of the 20th century, separatists and religious extremists both in and outside China, inherited the so-called theories of “Pan-Turkism” and “Pan-Islamism” which were created by former colonialists, spread the word that Uyghurs were the only “masters” of Xinjiang, that the ethnic cultures of Xinjiang were not of Chinese culture, and that Islam was the only religion practiced by ethnic groups of Xinjiang. They incited all ethnic groups speaking Turki and believing in Islam to join together in creating the theocratic state of so-called “East Turkistan”. They denied the history that China was jointly built by all its ethnic groups, and clamored for “opposition to all ethnic groups other than Turks” and for the “annihilation of pagans”.

From the early 20th century onto the late 1940s, these ideas were pushed forward by “East Turkistan” forces who wanted to create their own state in Xinjiang. In 1915, the separatist Maswud returned to Ili, opened a school and publicly preached separatism to the students. On November 12, 1933, Mohammad Imin founded the so-called “East Turkistan Islamic Republic”, but the farce ended in less than three months due to strong opposition from the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

On November 12, 1944, another group of separatists led by Elihan Torae founded the so-called “Republic of East Turkistan”, which soon collapsed a year later. Afterwards, a series of separatist organizations and individuals continued their subversive and separatist activities under the banner of “East Turkistan” in a vain attempt to establish their own state.

The “East Turkistan” forces, however, have not resigned themselves to defeat. With the support of international anti-China forces, the “East Turkistan” forces have resorted to all means, both fair or foul, to organize, plan and carry out acts of separatism and sabotage. In the early 1950s the separatists instigated many riots in Xinjiang, calling on Uyghurs to “unite under the moon-and-star banner to create a republic of Islam”. In the 1960s there were the riots in Ili and Tacheng on the China-Russia border, the riot of the “East Turkistan People’s Revolutionary Party”, and the armed rebellion of the Gang of Ahongnof in southern Xinjiang. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, religious extremism had made further inroads into Xinjiang. It soon blended with terrorism to stir up social unrest in the region, seriously undermining local stability and security.

Since the 1990s, especially after the September 11 attacks in the US, the “East Turkistan” forces inside and outside China have stepped up their collaboration as terrorism and extremism spread around the globe, trying desperately to establish “East Turkistan” through struggle. In the name of ethnicity and religion, they deceitfully used people’s ethnic identity and religious belief to instigate religious fanaticism, spread religious extremism, and incite the common people to join in violent and terrorist activities. They brainwashed people with these beliefs, abetting them to “die for their belief in order to enter heaven”. Some of the most susceptible followers, no longer possessed of any self-control, became extremists and terrorists who heartlessly slaughtered innocent people.

For a long time separatists have tied extremism to religion, to religious believers, and to society as a whole. They tell people not to obey anyone but Allah and incite them to resist government management. They abuse those who do not follow the path of extremism as pagans, traitors and scum, urging their followers to verbally assault, reject, and isolate non-believers, Party members and officials, and patriotic religious individuals. They deny and reject all forms of secular culture, preaching a life without TV, radio and newspaper, forbidding people to weep at funerals or laugh at weddings, imposing bans on singing and dancing, and forcing women to wear heavily-veiled black long gowns. They over-generalize the “Halal” concept, stamping food, medicine, cosmetics, clothing, etc. with the Halal symbol. They turn a blind eye to the diverse and splendid cultures of Xinjiang created by all its ethnic groups, trying to sever the ties between the Chinese culture and the ethnic cultures of Xinjiang.

Nowadays, these groups generally operate under the name of ETIM, or East Turkestan Islamic Movement or the East Turkistan Party, which is affiliated with ETIM.

In 1990, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement organized its first terrorist attack in Baren Township. The ETIM was designated as a terrorist organization by the UN in 2002 and by the Chinese government in 2003. In July 2009, Islamic extremists caused riots in Ürümqi, killing almost 200 people and injuring over 1,000. In May 2014 in Ürümqi, they drove cars into a crowded marketplace and threw explosives at buildings, killing 39 and injuring 94. In July 2014, Imam Juma Tahir was assassinated after calling for peace and stability in Xinjiang.

Similar to Operation Cyclone, where the USA supported Islamic fundamentalism to destabilize the socialist government of Afghanistan, the US has supported Islamic fundamentalist separatists in the Xinjiang region of China. During the 1990s, the CIA transported Uyghur terrorists from Xinjiang to Afghanistan to be trained in guerilla warfare by the Mujahideen, following a plan of action developed by Bernard Lewis, a specialist at Oxford University, who proposed the creation of an “Arc of Crisis” made up of Muslims manipulated to extend US influence and overthrow Communist (Soviet) rule in Middle Eastern nations. Graham Fuller, former Deputy Director of the CIA's National Council of Intelligence, said in 1999:

The policy of guiding the evolution of Islam and of helping them [radicalized Muslims] against our adversaries worked marvelously well in Afghanistan against the Red Army. The same doctrines can still be used to destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter the Chinese influence in Central Asia

And FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds said in 2010:

…without the Cold War excuse our foreign policymakers had a real hard time justifying our joint operations and terrorism schemes in the resource-rich ex Soviet states with these same groups, so they made sure they kept their policies unwritten and unspoken, and considering their grip on the mainstream media, largely unreported. Now what would your response be if I were to say on the record, and, if required, under oath: ‘Between 1996 and 2002, we, the United States, planned, financed, and helped execute every major terrorist incident by Chechen rebels (and the Mujahideen) against Russia. Between 1996 and 2002, we, the United States, planned, financed, and helped execute every single uprising and terror related scheme in Xinjiang (aka East Turkistan and Uyghurstan)

China's response to this upsurge of terrorism and separatism has been to construct re-education camps (Xinjiang Vocational Education and Training Centers) which have been decried by the Western press in an effort to accuse China of running "concentration camps" and "death camps". Western countries have signed a letter criticizing China, while a counter-letter was signed by countries in the Muslim World as well as progressive states such as Cuba and Bolivia (under the socialist government of Evo Morales, prior to the US-backed coup).

Examples of terrorist attacks

Terrorist groups under the general term of East Turkestan Party have committed more than 30 acts between 1990 and 2016, which include killing ordinary people, assassinating religious leaders, endangering public safety (acts that did not have human victims or were foiled before they could be carried out), attacking government organs and planning riots.

Other notable examples include, but are not limited to:On February 5, 1992, while the whole of China was celebrating the Spring Festival, a terrorist group planted bombs on a No. 52 and a No. 30 bus in Urumqi, blowing up the 2 buses, killing 3 people and injuring 23 others.

• On February 5, 1992 during the Spring Festival celebrations, a terrorist group planted bombs on a No. 52 and a No. 30 bus in Urumqi, blowing up the 2 buses, killing 3 people and injuring 23 others.
• On March 22, 1996, two masked terrorists broke into the house of Akemusidike Aji, vice president of the Islamic Association of Xinhe County, Aksu Prefecture, and assistant imam of a mosque, and shot him dead.
• On July 5, 2009, the “East Turkistan” forces inside and outside China engineered a riot in Urumqi which shocked the whole world. Thousands of terrorists attacked civilians, government organs, public security and police officers, residential houses, stores and public transportation facilities, causing 197 deaths and injuries to over 1,700, smashing and burning down 331 stores and 1,325 vehicles, and damaging many public facilities.
• On July 30, 2011, two terrorists hijacked a truck at the junction of a food street in Kashgar City, stabbed the driver to death, drove the truck into the crowd, and then attacked the public with their knives. In this incident, 8 were killed and 27 injured. The next day, knife-wielding terrorists randomly attacked pedestrians on Xiangxie Street, Renmin West Road, killing 6 and injuring 15.
• On February 28, 2012, nine knife-wielding terrorists attacked civilians on Xingfu Road, Yecheng County, Kashgar Prefecture, resulting in 15 deaths and 20 injuries.
• On March 1, 2014, eight knife-wielding Xinjiang terrorists attacked passengers at the Kunming Railway Station Square and the ticket lobby, leaving 31 dead and 141 injured.
• On May 22, 2014, five terrorists drove two SUVs through the fence of the morning fair of North Park Road of Saybagh District, Urumqi, into the crowd, and then detonated a bomb, claiming the life of 39 and leaving 94 injured.
• On September 18, 2015, terrorists attacked a coal mine in Baicheng County, Aksu Prefecture, causing 16 deaths and 18 injuries
• On December 28, 2016, four terrorists drove into the courtyard of Moyu County government, Hotan Prefecture, detonated a homemade explosive device, and attacked government staff, leaving 2 dead and 3 injured.

International Reactions

International reaction to the economic and cultural developments in the Xinjiang region have been mostly represented through the eyes of the imperial core. Their claims keep growing in scale and the goal is simply to destabilise the CPC, and open up China for their domestic markets under their own terms. It should also be noted Xinjiang is a very important geographical area for the Belt and Road Initiative and contains tons of oil in the Tarim Basin. 100 additional million tons were discovered in 2020.

The United States

The United States of America and their imperialist allies understand that Xinjiang is a very important target in order to destabilise China, as destabilising China would allow them to install comprador heads of state, which would force open China's markets, much like what we have seen after the Opium wars.

In 2018, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson of the US Army explained in a speech at the Ron Paul Institute that the USA has a military presence in Afghanistan so that they can keep troops close to China, and that if they wanted to destabilize China, they would go through Xinjiang, harnessing and stoking the separatist sentiment present there.

In October 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo removed the designation of ETIM as a terrorist group. It should be noted that for 10 years prior to that decision, the USA had been drone striking people they designated as ETIM fighters in Pakistan and thus begs the question: who was the USA bombing for a decade if ETIM did not exist for more than 10 years, as Pompeo alleged without evidence?

Mike Pompeo's ferocious slander against China and the people of Xinjiang gave rise to a movement from Uyghurs living in Xinjiang showing what their actual life is like in Xinjiang, and telling Mr. Pompeo to stop spreading slander.

Boycott of Xinjiang cotton industry

After claims of forced labour were advanced without evidence, many international companies (including, for example, H&M), decided not to use Xinjiang cotton in their products. This had the effect of weakening Xinjiang's economy, as producers were not able to sell their stock. In retaliation, Chinese people started boycotting these companies, and H&M closed down most locations in China.

Use in propaganda warfare

As part of the West's New Cold War against China, many Western media outlets have accused China of "operating concentration camps" in the Xinjiang region. These allegations have been debunked on non-Western media outlets, as well as the sparse alternative media outlets within the West. This is a clear example of information warfare.

Genocide Allegations

The so-called Uyghur genocide is an imperialist myth propagated by the U.S. government since 2017. It claims that the Chinese government is committing genocide against the Uyghur people of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. However, the Uyghur population has been steadily increasing and grew by more than 25% between 2010 and 2018 even though the total population of Xinjiang only rose by 13.99%. The Uyghur population is growing faster than Han Chinese (2%) or other ethnic minorities (22.14%). Chinese protections of Islam have been reputed to be contested by some citizens as suggesting preferential treatment, refuting the claim that the China's policies are anti-Islam.

China has roughly 54 other ethnic groups which have been relatively unscathed, including other Muslim-majority ethnic groups such as the Hui ethnic group, which is larger than the Uyghur population. In 2019, almost 1,000 diplomats and journalists from many countries as well as the UN, EU, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation visited Xinjiang and found no evidence of genocide. In response to the Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's claims of genocide in Xinjiang, people from all walks of life in the region submitted at least 450 written responses and 345 videos condemning the comments as untrue and harmful.

Adrian Zenz

Adrian Zenz is a fundamentalist Christian and self-proclaimed "independent researcher" connected to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation who does not understand a word of Chinese and bases his research on documents published by the CPC to claim that China is incarcerating 1 million Uyghurs in concentration camps. His research has been shown to be shoddy or completely wrong -- including, for example, a time where he claimed 87% of all new IUD procedures in China (temporary sterilisation tool) were done in Xinjiang, whereas the source he used (official CPC statistics) showed a number of 8.7%, a staggering difference by a factor of 10.

He had also claimed that Xinjiang is forcibly sterilizing Uyghur women with IUDs. In fact, only 328,475 of China's total 3,774,318 IUDs were in Xinjiang. In September 2018, he said there were about 1,060,000 Uyghurs in re-education camps. It is important to note that this number is based on anonymous interviews consiting of only eight people. In his initial report for the ~1M estimate, Radio Free Asia is cited four times, and the estimate is only mentioned on (pp. 21-2). Zenz finds this number by roughly extrapolating a “leaked” report by Newsweek Japan (affiliated with Newsweek Inc.). This report came from “Istekral TV”, which frequently platforms the terrorist organization ETIM—the report was never confirmed.

On May 4, 2022, the BBC posted an article detailing what they termed the "Xinjiang Police Files", a collection of documents and other resources which purportedly proved accusations of maltreatment against Uyghurs. The documents were allegedly provided by an anonymous source to Adrian Zenz, who then gave them to the BBC. The documents in fact showed many Uyghurs working at the centers and that the centers had some Han Chinese detainees. Many articles used images of guns as a scare tactic without noting that these were images of security drills and that the magazines were empty. The articles associated with the files whitewashed the crimes of genuine ETIM members who had been a party in bombings such as Yusup Ismayil (with text placed over an image of Yusup reading "many have been detained just for ordinary, outward signs of their Islamic faith or for visiting countries with majority Muslim populations", with no citation for this claim). The Xinjiang Police Files "key documents" file metadata showed that Adrian Zenz and Ilshat Kobor (of the Uyghur American Association) had modified them, with metadata information being removed soon after release. The XPF website also posted demographic data, of which the number of male and female detainees added up to over the stated total in the same data.

Zamira Dawut

The BBC claimed that Zamira Dawut was sterilized at a vocational center. Her brother, Abduhelil, said she had never been to a vocational center. Zamira said her father was arrested multiple times and then died of unknown causes. In reality, he was never arrested or even investigated and died of heart disease on 2019 October 12.

The New York Times

On 2019 November 16, The New York Times reported on supposed leaked documents on Xinjiang. State media was quick to assert that these documents were not authentic, calling them "fabricated." Grammatical errors indicated that the documents were fake and likely translated from English to Chinese, with users further noting that the "leaked" docs did not correspond to the formatting standards of Chinese government documents (GB/T9704).

Myths

UN Human Rights Council resolutions 41/G/11 (blue) criticizing China and 41/G/17 (red) supporting China.

A UN Resolution of global south nations

We express our firm opposition to relevant countries’ practice of politicizing human rights issues, by naming and shaming, and publicly exerting pressures on other countries. We commend China’s remarkable achievements in the field of human rights by adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and protecting and promoting human rights through development. We also appreciate China’s contributions to the international human rights cause.

World Bank Investigation of Xinjiang

UN General Assembly resolution SR.37

When allegations are made, the World Bank takes them seriously and reviews them thoroughly. In line with standard practice, immediately after receiving a series of serious allegations in August 2019 in connection with the Xinjiang Technical and Vocational Education and Training Project, the Bank launched a fact-finding review, and World Bank senior managers traveled to Xinjiang to gather information directly...

The team conducted a thorough review of project documents, engaged in discussions with project staff, and visited schools directly financed by the project, as well as their partner schools that were the subject of allegations. The review did not substantiate the allegations.

Organization of Islamic Cooperation praises Chinese handling of Xinjiang

Welcomes the outcomes of the visit conducted by the General Secretariat's delegation upon invitation from the People's Republic of China; commends the efforts of the People's Republic of China in providing care to its Muslim citizens; and looks forward to further cooperation between the OIC and the People's Republic of China.

Egyptian media delegates visit Xinjiang

The recently published report also brings forth some interesting facts related to the religious freedom as opposed to the western propaganda. The report provides a strong testimonial by the visiting delegates who clearly state, “the in houses of worship such as the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, modern facilities abound, providing water, electricity and air conditioning. Local clerics told the visitors that their religious activities had been very well protected”. "The conditions here are very good," said Abdelhalim Elwerdany, of Egypt's Al-Gomhuria newspaper. "I could feel that local Muslims fully enjoy religious freedom."

In 2019 July, the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council met and voted on two opposing letters regarding Xinjiang. 50 countries voted in favor of China's policies and 22 voted against.

On 2019 October 29, at the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, 24 countries and the EU criticized China and 57 countries supported China.

International Visits to Xinjiang

Diplomats

In 2018 December, diplomats from Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Uzbekistan visited Xinjiang and had full access to vocational training centers. They found no evidence of forced labor or cultural or religious oppression.

On 2019 January 29, an EU delegation visited. On February 25, about 200 representatives of 50 political parties from almost 30 countries visited Ürümqi. On February 28, diplomats from Algeria, Burma, Greece, Hungary, Morocco, Vietnam, and the Arab League visited. China offered to let the EU visit again in March, but it declined. On March 27, the Albanian and Serbian ambassadors to China (Selim Belortaja and Milan Bačević) visited. On June 15, Under Secretary-General of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office Vladimir Voronkov visited Xinjiang. Between June 18 and 21, diplomats from Algeria, Burkina Faso, the DR Congo, Laos, Malaysia, Nigeria, Serbia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Togo, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation visited. On August 19, diplomats from Bahrain, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka visited. In September, diplomats from the African Union and 16 African countries, including Burundi, Djibouti, Lesotho, Sudan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe visited. In November, Fahri Hamzah, former Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives, visited Xinjiang. On November 11, the World Bank visited Xinjiang and found no abnormalities in the vocational centers.

Media

On 2019 January 6, Reuters visited Xinjiang. Starting on January 9, 12 media representatives from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Sri Lanka, and Turkey visited. Another media delegation from Egypt visited on January 29. On February 22, 11 journalists from Indonesia and Malaysia visited. On 2019 May 7, NPR released its report on a visit to a vocational center. On 2019 June 18, BBC visited a vocational center. Starting on July 14, journalists from 24 countries, including India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, the USA, and Uzbekistan visited Xinjiang. On August 17, a media group from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Turkey, and the UAE visited. On August 29, ABC News visited a vocational center. On October 10, 2021, as Xinjiang was slowly opening for tourism, the Associated Press traveled to Xinjiang in order to investigate the measures taken by the government. They concluded that the genocidal policies had existed at some point but had been done away with before the opening measures, although the article still critiqued certain things they felt stifled Uyghur culture. A response was posted afterwards by The New Atlas which bemoaned several of the article's pretensions.