Uyghurs who store the Quran on their phones face police interrogation
Maya Wang, acting China director at the Human Rights Watch (HRW), said that Beijing's use of surveillance technology in Xinjiang meant that Uyghurs who simply store the Quran on their phones may trigger a police interrogation.
Table of Contents (Show / Hide)
Police in China's Xinjiang region rely on a master list of 50,000 multimedia files they deem “violent and terrorist” to flag Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim residents for interrogation, according to a report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) on May 4.
An investigation by HRW into the metadata of this master list found that during nine months from 2017 to 2018, police conducted nearly 11 million searches of a total of 1.2 million mobile phones in Xinjiang's capital city Urumqi. Xinjiang’s automated police mass surveillance systems enabled this phone search.
Maya Wang, acting China director at HRW, said that Beijing's use of surveillance technology in Xinjiang meant that Uyghurs who simply store the Quran on their phones may trigger a police interrogation.
The New York-based international non-governmental organisation (NGO) has repeatedly raised concerns about China’s approach to countering acts it calls “terrorism” and “extremism.”
"China’s counterterrorism law defines “terrorism” and “extremism” in an overly broad and vague manner that facilitates prosecutions, deprivation of liberty, and other restrictions for acts that do not intend to cause death or serious physical harm for political, religious, or ideological aims," the report said.
The Human Rights Watch searches found more than 1,000 unique files on about 1,400 Urumqi residents’ phones that matched those on the police master list. The analysis of these matched files revealed that 57 per cent appeared to be common Islamic religious materials, including readings of every surah (chapter) of the Quran.
The list is part of a large database (52GB) of over 1,600 data tables from Xinjiang leaked to the Intercept in 2019. The Intercept, an American media group, reported that police in Xinjiang's capital conducted surveillance and arrests from 2015 to 2019 based on texts of police reports that were part of this database.
What do the media files contain?
An analysis of the metadata of this master list revealed photos, audio, and video files that has no evident connection to violence.
The files contained Islamic religious content, including Quran readings and wedding songs.
"Human Rights Watch also found another related list in the database that has the same MD5 hashes – the unique signature of these files. This list apparently contains the search result of the Jingwang Weishi app, a surveillance application," the report further said.
According to a report by Al-Jazeera, police in Urumqi have required residents to download Jingwang Weishi, which gives authorities the ability to monitor the contents of their phones. And visitors to Xinjiang can also be required to download a similar application called Fengcai.
The HRW urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to urgently form an independent, international investigation into rights violations and the suppression of fundamental freedoms in Xinjiang by China against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims.
URL :
News ID : 1899
Impact of Conflict on Women and Girls: Insights from UN Sideline Event
Greece protests to Ukraine, Serbia for not knowing about munitions on crashed plane
Over 2K children sexually abused by Catholic clerics over almost 7 decades in Illinois
Tragedy Strikes Gaza Strip as 41 Palestinians Lose Lives in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah
UN Agency Alarmed by Israeli Army's Rights Violations Against Palestinian Women
Major sports events of 2022
Pakistan slammed over dissent crackdown, alleged rights abuses
2022 Winter Olympics to begin Wednesday, games to see US-led diplomatic boycott
Islamophobe politician burns copy of Muslim holy book in front of a mosque in Denmark
How the FAA went to war against 5G
