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Chinese policemen monitor the exit of the Kashgar Mosque in the Xianjing area where the Uyghur Muslim minority lives. (Illustration image) Johannes EISELE / AFP

The " New York Times " has obtained more than 400 pages of a confidential report from the Beijing government about the mass detention of members of the Muslim minority living in Xinjiang.

The New York Times has purchased a total of 24 papers, which it publishes this weekend. This is one of the biggest leaks of Chinese government information in ten years.

" No mercy "

Some gather secret speeches from President Xi Jinping calling on regional authorities to use " the tools of the dictatorship " without mercy against " terrorism, infiltration and separatism ". The idea is therefore to fight extremism by acting widely within a large majority of moderate Muslims. A speech distributed from 2016 to senior local officials to justify the repression, with the order to " round up all those who must be ".

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Under cover of the fight against terrorism and separatism Beijing is pursuing a wide-ranging policy of internment of the Uyghurs, this ethnic minority Muslim and Turkish speaking, mainly from the province of Xinjiang. According to various NGOs, more than one million Muslims are believed to be held in these camps. China, she denies these figures and prefers to speak of " training center " and education.

Eradicate the " virus " of Islam

Other documents illustrate the practical implementation of this policy. In particular, they describe the questions and answers prepared by the authorities to receive students from Uygur families who return for the summer holidays to find their home empty and learned of the arrest of their entire family. It is therefore recommended that the agents first explain to the students that their relatives have been placed in quarantine because they are infected by the " virus " of radical Islam. A virus that must be eradicated by treatment " before the disease degenerates ".

A method of gradual threats is then detailed in order to force the student to submit to the values ​​of the Communist Party.

A leak that reveals divisions

According to the New York Times , this huge leak suggests that the policy followed in Xinjiang is not unanimous within the Chinese power. Indeed, the documents were forwarded by a member of the apparatus who expressed hope, says the newspaper, that they prevent the regime, including President Xi Jinping " to escape his guilt for the widespread detentions " in this region.

The case also revealed that some leaders of Xinjiang have been purged for being against the repressive policy of central authorities.