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Brainwashing, Police Guards and Coercive Internment: Evidence from Chinese Government Documents about the Nature and Extent of Xinjiang’s “Vocational Training Internment Camps”

Posted on by Adrian Zenz

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 7, No. 7, July 2019

The women were kept in their classroom behind a gated metal fence. From Figure 6, below. Source: anonymous informant.

Adrian Zenz
Independent Researcher

Introduction

In the wake of growing international criticism, the Chinese government has sought to counter human rights accusations over its re-education and internment campaign in Xinjiang through an elaborate propaganda campaign. This campaign portrays the region’s network of so-called “Vocational Skills Education Training Centers” (zhiye jineng jiaoyu peixun zhongxin 职业技能教育培训中心) as benign training institutions that offer persons who committed minor offenses a gracious and beneficial alternative to formal prosecution. Since late 2018, the state has invited media and official representatives from other nations and even from the western media to participate in official and closely-chaperoned tours of a select number of “showcase” centers.[1]

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Turkish Breakup with the U.S. and NATO: The Illogical Logics

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Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 7, No. 5, May 2019 

During the ceremony, Brig. Gen. Clarke assumed command of the 82nd from Maj. Gen. John W. Nicholson who is slated to take command of Allied Land Command, NATO, Izmir, Turkey. Source: U.S. Army via Flickr.

Dr. Jahara Matisek
U.S. Air Force Academy

Dr. Buddhika Jayamaha
U.S. Air Force Academy

Abstract: With decades of debate about Turkey leaving NATO, the Turkish purchase (and delivery) of a Russian air defense system may be crossing the Rubicon. The Syrian Civil War, combined with how the U.S. and NATO decided to back Kurdish proxies in the fight against the Islamic State, has fed into the domestic logic of survival for Turkish political elites. With President Erdoğan and his revisionist political party ruling over Turkey the last decade, they appear to have finally refashioned the Turkish state by purging secularists from the government and military since the coup hoax of 2016. This new consolidation of political power has created a Turkish state with values incompatible with the West and strategies irreconcilable with NATO. However, these efforts by Erdoğan are undermining the long-term economic viability of the Turkish state, as established norms concerning the rule of law and property rights deteriorate, risking Turkey’s status as a reliable and stable ally in the region. We make these judgements on Turkey provoking its own expulsion from NATO based on interviews and fieldwork in Kurdistan and Turkey.

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5G Fight With China: Politicization Leads to Suboptimal US Outcome

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Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 2019

A customer wearing a headset plays a virtual reality (VR) game, 2018. Source: Marco Verch via Flickr.

Anders Corr, Ph.D.
Publisher of the Journal of Political Risk

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a national 5G auction of large slices (up to 3.4 gigahertz) of the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum, along with $20.4 billion in subsidies over 10 years for rural connections, on April 12. The plan ignores expert cyber-security advice, has major security, timing, strategic and financial problems, and will not facilitate new competitors in the telecommunications market. The announcement by President Trump and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, likely under the influence of telecommunications lobbyists, was a surprise to most experts and took place with no real public input. The auction of the mmWave spectrum is set for December 10. At the press conference announcing the decision, Chairman Pai thanked Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow and Ivanka Trump for their assistance, with Ms. Trump giving a speech in support of the plan.

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Khashoggi was Not a Friend of America

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It would be ironic if his death led the U.S. to take actions harmful to itself

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 7, No. 10, October 2018 

Iran’s Navy Commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari, 2016. In 2010 on December, 22, in Tehran he announced at a press conference that Iran will launch 10 days of naval drills from December 24, covering east of the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman to the Gulf of Aden. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

William R. Hawkins

International Economics and National Security Consultant

Returning from his trip to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told President Donald Trump on Thursday that the Saudi Arabian government needs s “a few more days” to investigate the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi writer and activist who disappeared on October 4 while visiting a Saudi consulate in Turkey. It has been alleged that Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents because of his criticism of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the young reform-minded de facto leader of the country.  Pompeo told the press, “We made clear to them that we take this matter very seriously.” As a sign of this, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin withdrew from an investment conference in Riyadh and President Donald Trump threatened “severe consequences” if Khashoggi’s murder was state sponsored. Yet, Pompeo also reminded his audience, “We have a have a long strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia. We need to be mindful of that.” And well we should, as it provides the larger strategic context in which the fate of Khashoggi must be placed.

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Is The U.S. Doing Enough To Advance Religious Freedom Globally?

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Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 7, No. 8, August 2018 

Photo taken in September 2017 shows a police officer patrolling against the backdrop of a billboard of President Xi Jinping. Source: Carsten ten Brink via Flickr.

Terri Marsh, Ph.D., Esq.

Executive Director and Senior Litigation partner of the Human Rights Law Foundation

We are facing a crisis as regards U.S. corporations profiting from the sale of technology indispensable to the perpetration of egregious human rights violations in the People’s Republic of China. In 2007 Jerry Yang, CEO of Yahoo! was criticized by U.S. Representative Tom Lantos, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, for Yahoo’s role in the arrest and imprisonment of Chinese journalist and democracy advocate Shi Tao. The case describes the actions that Yahoo! had taken to grow its business in China, complying with a government request for the identity of a Yahoo! user, which subsequently resulted in Shi Tao’s detention and torture. Cisco Systems Inc. arguably facilitated the development of the Golden Shield apparatus in China that has caught Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhist and Uyghur dissidents in its torture/persecution network. See “Index of Relevant Allegations,” available upon request. These are but a few of the most salient examples.

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