Chinese official documents obtained by the New York Times revealed new details of the mass detention camps in which about one million Muslim minorities of Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim ethnicities are held in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The 403-page documents also revealed that political indoctrination camps, long kept secret, came into existence at the demands of top state officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The documents showed that the Beijing government acknowledged in domestic memos that the crackdown among the Muslim community in Xinjiang had torn families apart, but also faced "unexpected" resistance from officials who feared a backlash and damage to the country's economy as a result of the political program.
The newspaper said in its report that a member of the Chinese political institution - who asked not to be named - unveiled the documents, in the hope that this will prevent the Communist Party leaders from evading responsibility for the detention and indoctrination program.
The New York Times report unveiled the documents as one of the most important leaks of documents from within the corridors of the Communist Party of China in decades.
Here are five facts the American newspaper has extracted from these documents:
First: a training campaign
The Chinese government has described its actions in Xinjiang as a charity campaign aimed at curbing extremism by training people to find better jobs.
However, the documents revealed by the New York Times unveiled measures taken by the Communist Party to organize a "rampant" campaign of mass arrests in the name of counter-terrorism.
The documents show how parents were snatched from their children, how students were confused about who would pay their tuition fees, and people wondered who would grow and harvest crops in the absence of labor.
However, officials kept telling people that they should be grateful to the Communist Party for helping them, warning them that if they complained, it would bring scourge to their families.
Second: conversations and repression
President Xi Hu laid the groundwork for the crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang through a series of conversations he made in secret meetings with officials during and after his visit to the province in April 2014, a few weeks after Uighur “militants” stabbed 150 people in Xinjiang. Train station; killing 31 of them.
Third: terrorist attacks
Increased "terrorist" attacks abroad, and a reduction in the number of US troops in Afghanistan contributed to the crackdown in Xinjiang.
Chinese officials attributed the attacks in Britain to its policy of "putting human rights above security", while President Xi urged his party members to follow the example of the United States, which launched a war on terror in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Fourth: Speeches of the President
Detention camps in Xinjiang quickly expanded following the appointment of a new and “extremist” Communist Party secretary-general in the province named Chen Gango in August 2016.
Chen Gango distributed speeches and speeches by President Xi to justify the crackdown and urged officials to "arrest all those who should be arrested."
Fifth: Ethnic tensions
The campaign of repression loomed suspicion, and faced resistance from local officials who feared that ethnic tensions could worsen and hinder economic growth.
Chen responded by purging officials suspected of standing up to him, including Wang Yongqi, a provincial leader who was arrested after secretly releasing thousands of prisoners from concentration camps.