China used to deny that these places exist, The The The The The The The but now we're being given a tour. The The The The The message? These are schools, not prisons.
The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The But the more we ask... The The The The The Have you been convicted of a crime? How often are you able to pray here? The law requires that students do not participate in public events. You can't shoot.
The more evidence we try to gather of our own, the more questions there are. As hundreds of thousands of Muslims disappear into giant secure facilities, China has begun taking a few selected journalists inside. This is what it wants the world to see, offered up as proof that these are not prisoners, but students. willingly being guided away from extremism.
Is it your choice to be here? Did you choose to come here? Yes.
I was influenced by the anti-fascist and anti-terrorist ideas because of the illegal and legal issues. Sun Yat-sen found out that he could attend a school as good as this and develop his own ideas. The world is in chaos! Always in the background, government officials watch over every interview. And this is how thoughts are transformed.
Long hours of rote learning Chinese, Right? Right! the study of China's tightening restrictions on religion, Then, what will you spend after this? and the replacing of faith and cultural identity with a different loyalty.
Right! Do you have money? I love the Communist Party of China, this man has written.
These are places where adults wear uniforms, and where they don't go home at the end of the day, but sleep up to ten a room, sharing a toilet, with no idea how many months or years it will be before they can return to their families. If they don't want to come, then what happens? I've never encountered this before.
But we will actively guide them. It doesn't a place where people have to come, obey the rules, stay until you allow them to leave. It sounds more like a prison. Even if it's a prison in which you can do some art.
You're only going to jail. Do you think there is a prison for painting? I don't know what kind of prison you're talking about.
Complete the task. But this is a training center. Painting is just a part of it.
It's a part of his choice. But it's mainly through learning Mandarin, learning law and skills. It's done through this. We find some graffiti that reads, Okay. Oh my heart don't break.
We've decided not to use the image to protect whoever wrote it. Over the past few years, a vast network of high-security facilities has been built across China's western region of Xinjiang, surrounded by high walls, barbed wire and watchtowers. But in some of the places we're being taken to, the satellite images show that the internal security fencing and what look like watchtowers were taken down shortly before the tours for journalists began, and empty exercise yards have been transformed into sports facilities, on full display when we visit.
but if these are show camps what might that say about the places we are not given access to with their watch-towers and barbed-wire still in place they look much less like schools You can't shoot here. Why? You can't shoot here. and we're much less welcome.
All of this, China says, is a response to decades of sporadic separatist violence. But Xinjiang's Muslims, What did he bring when he came? the Uyghurs, the Kazakhs and others are being swept up, it seems, for the mildest of beliefs and behaviours.
This jade is from our river. This is a maoli. I asked him what he was doing when he saw the diploma he had received.
Rakhima Senbey, who now lives in Kazakhstan, spent more than a year in the Chinese camp system just for having WhatsApp on her phone. He said, I'm going to the hospital. He said, I'm going to the hospital.
Now, when he works for the children, he is a good example for the children. Only towards the end was she in a facility resembling those we've been shown. Mostly, she was in much tougher camps, including this one. Thank you.
inside these facilities that they call schools. What do you think? If you speak out of your mouth, they will come and take you away from here. That's why they are afraid of those people. They are afraid of their words.
They are afraid of knowing, of singing. What, one wonders, might these people have been told by the officials ahead of our visit? Then they switch from Uyghur, their mother tongue, to Chinese lyrics, written by President Xi Jinping.
They've been convicted of no crime, faced no trial, but we're told China now believes it can determine their guilt in advance. I stopped him before he started the crime. The important thing is that I went from a criminal to a normal citizen.
Pre-criminals, in need, This is our restaurant service class. we're told of job training. The main training is to make the students lie on their backs and clean. How long does it take to learn how to make a bed? Just to learn to make the bed?
Four months? Hello! We are doing this to change the religious ideas of our students. So that after graduation, our students can go straight to work.
Hello! We would call that brainwashing. We are not completely changing their ideas.
We are just getting rid of the religious ideas. Hello! We're told that everyone gets one night's home leave every week, We spent a long time to see the progress of the students. with different groups of students going on different days. If they learn fast, Later, we find ourselves at the school gate at exactly the right time.
One final question. I'm wondering why we don't see any students leaving or even preparing to leave. So in the next few minutes they will leave?
I mean, that seems a little odd. I mean, when we spoke earlier, you said that people left every day. The government has not approved the ban on the use of plastic bags. Our government minders.
call the principal over. The government has not approved the ban on the use of plastic bags. With our official tour now finished, The government has not approved the ban on the use of plastic bags. we decide to return uninvited to one of the facilities we've already been shown.
The government has not approved the ban on the use of plastic bags. The government has not approved the ban on the use of plastic bags. The government has not approved the ban on the use of plastic bags.
The government has not approved the ban on the use of plastic bags. The government has not approved the ban on the use of plastic bags. The government has not approved the ban on the use of plastic bags. To our surprise, we find a large group of men waiting silently in rows. just inside the gate.
And then the buses start to arrive. We should definitely follow It is evidence that some people are given home leave. But it's also an insight into the scale of the system. This bus is full of men from just one village, where it disappears into a government compound.
him. Oh, no. Let's follow that bus. The men, it seems, are processed here before finally being given their freedom for the night, heading home on foot.
For a few hours they can leave this behind. Long after dark the lights still burn, and the sound of thoughts being transformed echoes late into the night.