World

A leak of thousands of photos and official documents from China’s Xinjiang has shed new light on the violent methods used to enforce mass internment in the region, researchers said Tuesday.

The files, obtained by academic Adrian Zenz, were published as UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet begins a long-awaited and controversial trip to Xinjiang.

Activists say Chinese authorities have detained more than one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in a network of detention centres and prisons in the region, which Beijing has defended as training centres.

But the trove of police photographs and internal documents — sent to Zenz by an anonymous source who hacked into official databases in Xinjiang — add to evidence that the mass internments were far from voluntary, with leaked documents showing top leaders in Beijing including President Xi Jinping calling for a forceful crackdown.

The files include a 2017 internal speech by Chen Quanguo, a former Communist Party secretary in Xinjiang, in which he allegedly orders guards to shoot to kill anyone who tries to escape, and calls for officials in the region to “exercise firm control over religious believers”.

A 2018 internal speech by public security minister Zhao Kezhi mentions direct orders from Xi to increase the capacity of detention facilities.

After initially denying their existence, Beijing has claimed the facilities are vocational training schools, attended voluntarily and aimed at stamping out religious extremism.

But the leaked documents give an insight into how leaders saw the minority population as a security threat, with Zhao warning that more than two million people in southern Xinjiang alone had been “severely influenced by the infiltration of extremist religious thought”.

– Mugshots –

More than 2,800 police photos of Xinjiang detainees included minors such as 17-year-old Zeytunigul Ablehet, detained for listening to an illegal speech, and 16-year-old Bilal Qasim, apparently sentenced for being related to other detainees.

The details echo a separate police list leaked earlier to AFP which showed the government crackdown snaring hundreds of people at a time from villages, often many from the same household.

“The sort of paranoid threat perception comes out in these files, and the internal justification for why one has to move against an entire population,” said Zenz in video comments published alongside the leaked files.

Zenz works for the US-based non-profit organisation the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

The files, parts of which have been verified by multiple news organisations including the BBC and Le Monde, also provide a window into life in detention facilities.

Photos appear to show officers restraining hooded and shackled inmates with batons, while other guards wearing camouflage stand by with firearms.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Tuesday called the details of the newly leaked documents “shocking”, and urged China to grant Bachelet “full and unfettered access to the region so that she can conduct a thorough assessment of the facts on the ground”.

But China’s foreign ministry dismissed the leaked documents as “cobbled-together material” by “anti-China forces smearing Xinjiang”, with spokesman Wang Wenbin accusing media of “spreading lies and rumours”.

US President Joe Biden and Anthony Albanese swapped banter, reminiscences, and even sleeping advice in their first meeting since the Australian’s election win.

The light-hearted exchanges came as the two men met in Tokyo where they were attending the Quad summit —  a grouping that includes Australia, India, Japan and the United States.

Biden, who has deepened US ties with Australia as part of a strategy to contain China, called the US-Australian alliance “an anchor of stability and prosperity” in the Asia-Pacific.

According to a readout from the White House, their behind-doors discussions covered topics such as the AUKUS security pact between Australia, Britain and the United States, and efforts to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

In public exchanges, however, Biden opened by joking that his counterpart, elected just last weekend, has “been on the job a long time”.

He expressed admiration that Albanese decided to fly to Tokyo for the Quad meeting so soon after his election win, saying it showed Australia is “all-in” on the relationship.

Then, instead of the more typical good-luck wish to the newbie leader, Biden suggested good night.

“You were sworn in and got on a plane,” Biden said, admiringly.

So “if you fall asleep while you’re here, it’s OK, because I don’t know how you’re doing it. It’s really quite extraordinary — just getting off the campaign trail as well.”

Albanese showed no fatigue as he launched into his own banter.

Lauding how the two countries are “great friends”, he recalled visiting the United States many years ago as a “young fellow” on a State Department invitational programme to experience the country.

While on the trip, he conducted research into the diversity of US society, studying groups ranging from the National Rifle Association gun lobby to Planned Parenthood, which promotes abortion access.

It was, Albanese said to laughter, “the full kit and caboodle across the spectrum”.

“You’re a brave man,” exclaimed Biden, who has tried with varying success to battle against deepening right-left divisions in US society.

Albanese noted that he would host the next Quad summit in Australia in 2023, but said he hoped to be “visiting the US before then”.

Biden suggested they “work out a time sooner than later”.

Returning to his concerns over Albanese’s travel schedule, the US president quipped: “But you’re probably going to have to be home at some point.”

Albanese brings a centre-left government to Australia, his Labor party ending the era of polarising conservative leader Scott Morrison.

Under Morrison, Australia entered the AUKUS deal crafted by Biden, with a plan for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. However, Albanese’s strong focus on fighting climate change is likely to see his administration dovetail with the Biden White House on another key issue.

China has called a mission by the UN rights chief a chance to “clarify misinformation” ahead of her visit on Tuesday to Xinjiang as Uyghurs warned a public relations stunt may lie in wait.

The ruling Communist Party is accused of detaining over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region as part of a years-long crackdown the United States and lawmakers in other Western countries have labelled a “genocide”.

China vehemently denies the allegations, calling them the “lie of the century”.

Michelle Bachelet is expected to visit the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a six-day tour.

She met Foreign Minister Wang Yi who “expressed the hope that this trip would help enhance understanding”, according to a readout of the meeting released late Monday.

In its report of the meeting, state news agency Xinhua said Bachelet “congratulated China on its important achievements in economic and social development and in promoting the protection of human rights”.

Bachelet’s spokesperson did not confirm to AFP what was said outside the opening comments.

But Uyghurs, the main victims of an alleged campaign of repression, raised doubts about her presence if the trip is as highly-controlled as expected.

Nursimangul Abdureshid, a Uyghur living in Turkey, said she was “not very hopeful that her trip can bring any change”.

“I request them to visit victims like my family members, not the pre-prepared scenes by the Chinese government,” she told AFP.

Another Uyghur, Jevlan Shirememet, called on Bachelet to help him contact his mother who he has not seen for four years.

The Turkey-based 31-year-old — from the province’s northern reaches near the border with Kazakhstan — also said he hoped Bachelet would venture further than her itinerary.

“I don’t know why she can’t visit these places,” he told AFP.

– ‘Unfettered access’ –

Regional capital Urumqi is home to many of the government agencies believed to be behind the campaign China has described as a crackdown on religious extremism.

The city of four million has a sizeable Uyghur community and was the site of deadly ethnic clashes in 2009 as well as two attacks in 2014.

Kashgar — home to 700,000 people — lies in the Uyghur heartland of southern Xinjiang.

An ancient Silk Road city, it has been a major target of Beijing’s crackdown, researchers and activists say, with authorities accused of smothering the cultural hub in a high-tech security blanket while bulldozing Uyghur homes and religious sites.

The outskirts of both cities are pockmarked with what are believed to be detention camps, part of a sprawling network of recently built facilities.

Campaigners have voiced concern that Beijing will prevent Bachelet from conducting a thorough probe into alleged rights abuses and instead give her a stage-managed tour.

“We are very worried that this visit comes with few benefits for victims and activists, for a very high political cost,” said Raphael David from the International Service for Human Rights.

The US has said it is “deeply concerned” that she had not secured guarantees on what she will see, adding that she was unlikely to get an “unmanipulated” picture of China’s rights situation.

Bachelet on Monday gave assurances about her access to detention centres and rights defenders during a virtual meeting with the heads of dozens of diplomatic missions in China, according to diplomatic sources in Beijing.

Caroline Wilson, the UK’s ambassador to China, was on the call and tweeted that she stressed “the importance of unfettered access to Xinjiang and private conversations with its people”. 

In response, China’s foreign ministry retorted Tuesday that London and Washington want to use Bachelet’s visit to “hype up so-called Xinjiang issues, and to smear and slander China.”

Bachelet’s office has also said she will meet with civil society organisations, business representatives and academics.

In addition to mass detentions, Chinese authorities have waged a campaign of forced labour, coerced sterilisation and the destruction of Uyghur cultural heritage in Xinjiang, researchers and campaigners say.

Leaked documents called the Xinjiang Police Files were reported by a consortium of media Tuesday — appearing to show thousands of photographs from inside Xinjiang’s system of mass incarceration, including many faces of detained Uyghurs.

The youngest was only 15 at the time of her detention, according to the reports.

Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called the report “the latest example of anti-China forces smearing Xinjiang”.

Earlier this month, a leaked police database obtained by AFP listed the names and details of thousands of detained Uyghurs.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday faced renewed accusations of lying, after photos emerged of him drinking at a Downing Street party during lockdown in 2020.

The revelations came as a senior civil servant was expected to publish her long-awaited full report into the “Partygate” scandal, despite claims that Johnson was trying to have it dropped.

A slew of revelations earlier this year about lockdown-breaking parties caused widespread political and public anger, and put Johnson’s position in jeopardy.

But the heat was taken out of a potential mutiny from his own MPs by the war in Ukraine, and his hawkish support for President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The photos published late Monday by ITV News were taken during a leaving party for Johnson’s communications chief Lee Cain on November 13, 2020, days after the government ordered a second lockdown, and banned household mixing.

Johnson can be seen raising a glass and chatting with several people around a table with bottles of wine and food.

Police have investigated the event as part of their probe into “Partygate” and fined one person, but not Johnson.

When he was asked in parliament last December about the gathering, he insisted there was no party on that date and that no rules were broken.

Johnson has been fined over a surprise birthday party he attended at Downing Street in June 2020, but was not fined for any other event.

The deputy leader of the main opposition Labour party, Angela Rayner, said it was “astonishing” that Johnson was not fined for the November gathering.

She told ITV News that it looked “pretty clear” there was a party that was not a work event, calling it “pretty shocking” he had not been fined for it.

“He knew that he broke the rules, and he’s known it all along and yet he’s tried to get away with it,” she added. 

“He’s tried to lie to the British public, and he’s tried to lie to parliament,” Rayner said.

– Publish –

But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps sought to defend Johnson on Tuesday, saying the new pictures showed he was “clearly not” partying.

“It looks to me he was asked to go and thank a member of staff who was leaving, raises a glass to them and I imagine comes in and out pretty quick, which is presumably why the police have not issued a fixed-penalty notice to the Prime Minister,” Shapps told BBC radio.

Shapps said he did not think London’s Metropolitan police needed to explain why Johnson had not been fined over the event.

The Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that Johnson had put pressure on civil servant Sue Gray to drop her much-anticipated report.

Sky News quoted sources as saying Johnson had questioned what more would be left to say after the police concluded their work.

Rayner joined a chorus of opposition voices calling for the Gray report to be published “as soon as possible”. 

“The full report — and all the evidence — must be published without delay,” she tweeted. 

“Anything less will amount to a further cover up from this deceitful, untrustworthy PM.”

The Met said on Thursday that they had completed their “Partygate” probe, issuing a total of 126 fines related to multiple gatherings in and around Downing Street.

Those fined include Johnson, his wife Carrie and finance minister Rishi Sunak. 

Johnson’s fine — the first for a sitting British prime minister — prompted calls for him to resign or be forced out. 

He has apologised for the breach of Covid regulations but has refused to quit.

He is also facing an investigation by a parliamentary committee into his past denials of lockdown lawbreaking to the House of Commons.

Key developments since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three months ago, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.

– Start of invasion-

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announces the start of a “special military operation” to defend the mainly Russian-speaking separatist “republics” of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, days after having recognised their independence.

Russian troops cross into Ukrainian territory.

On February 26, the Russian army receives orders to widen its offensive.

The European Union announces the purchase and delivery of arms for Ukraine. Western nations agree on the first round of economic sanctions against Moscow.

– First negotiations –

On February 28, Moscow and Kyiv delegations start a first round of peace talks. 

Putin demands recognition of the previously annexed Crimean peninsula as Russian territory, “neutral” status for Ukraine and the country’s “denazification”.

Moscow has for months been seeking guarantees that Kyiv will never join the western NATO military alliance.

On March 2, Russian troops reach Kharkiv, in the north, Ukraine’s second city, and capture Kherson, to the south and gateway to the Crimea.

On March 8, US President Joe Biden decrees an embargo on Russian gas and oil.

Two days later, EU leaders rule out swift membership of the bloc for Ukraine sought by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky but open the door to closer links.

– Mariupol besieged – 

On March 21, Brussels denounces “a major war crime” after Russian forces besieging the strategic port of Mariupol, bombard a maternity hospital and a theatre sheltering civilians. Thousands of residents are trapped in the city.

On March 24, NATO decides to send equipment to Ukraine to mitigate the effects of a chemical or nuclear attack. It shores up defences on its eastern flank.

The following day, Moscow announces it will focus on the “liberation of the Donbas”.

– Horror in Bucha –

On April 2, Ukraine announces it has regained control of the Kyiv region after Russian troops pull back to the east and south.

Ukrainian forces find dozens of corpses in towns near Kyiv, notably Bucha to the northwest, provoking an international outcry. 

On April 8, at least 57 people are killed when railway station in the eastern town of Kramatorsk is shelled.

– Russian cruiser sunk –

On April 12, Ukraine say they have hit Russia’s Black Sea flagship the Moskva with two R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles. Moscow says it sank following an on-board fire caused by exploding munitions.

On April 21, Putin says Russian forces have taken control of Mariupol, but some 2,000 soldiers are holding out at the city’s Azovstal steelworks, along with around 1,000 civilians.

On April 27, the Ukrainian army acknowledges a Russian breakthrough in the east, in the Kharkiv region and in the Donbas.

– Sweden, Finland look to NATO –

On May 3, Russian and pro-Russian forces launch a major assault on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

On May 8, some 60 people are reported missing after the shelling of a school in the Lugansk region.

On May 18, Sweden and Finland apply to join NATO.

On May 19, the US Congress approves a $40-billion aid package for Ukraine’s war effort. The G7 pledges $19.8 billion the following day.

– Azovstal under Russian control –

On May 20, Moscow says its forces control the Azovstal steelworks. Kyiv says Mariupol is 90-percent destroyed and that at least 20,000 people have been killed there.

The eastern towns of Severodonetsk and Lyssytchansk are the last remaining pockets of Ukrainian resistance in the Lugansk region.

On May 23, a Kyiv court hands down a life sentence to a young Russian soldier in the conflict’s first war crimes trial.

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A South African paraglider has made the first legal flight off Mount Everest, an expedition organiser said Tuesday, opening doors for “climb and fly” adventurers on the world’s highest mountain.

Pierre Carter, 55, leapt off near the summit at an altitude of nearly 8,000 metres (26,247 feet) last week, cruising above the Himalayas as other mountaineers descended on foot. 

Carter flew down at a top speed of 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour, taking only 20 minutes to land near the small settlement of Gorakshep at 5,164 metres. 

“It was a beautiful flight down. Above the clouds and then through the clouds and down,” Carter told AFP.

Weather conditions dissuaded Carter from climbing all the way to the top of Everest’s 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) summit before his flight from the South Col ridge around noon.

“Once you’re in the air it is all relative,” Carter said. 

“But the take off’s always difficult the higher you are… your glider doesn’t want to fly as easily.”

Carter began climbing as a teenager and soon became interested in paragliding. 

Since 2005, he has flown off five of the seven mountains that make up the tallest summits on their respective continents, beginning with Russia’s Mount Elbrus.

Carter reached the summit of Alaska’s Denali in 2016 but was not permitted to fly. He next aims to repeat the feat off Mount Vinson in Antarctica.

There have been only three recorded flights off Everest, all without government permits. 

French alpinist and pilot Jean-Marc Boivin was the first person to paraglide down from Everest in 1988. 

A French couple made a tandem flight from the summit in 2001 in a feat that was repeated a decade later by a pair of Nepali climbers. 

“This is the first time Nepal has issued a flight permit on its mountains,” Dawa Steven Sherpa of Asian Trekking told AFP.

Sherpa said he expected more climbers to follow Carter next season, now that Nepali authorities have shown a willingness to permit flights off the Himalayas.

“Many climbers are also paragliders and the idea of climbing and flying down is gaining popularity,” Sherpa said. 

“Authorities now see this can boost Nepal’s tourism industry, especially after Covid,” Sherpa said.  

The country only reopened its peaks to mountaineers last year after the coronavirus pandemic shut down the industry in 2020. 

A rare window of good weather has already allowed hundreds of climbers and guides to reach the Everest summit since a team of Nepali climbers opened the route on May 7.

At least three climbers, including a Russian and two Nepalis, have died on Everest since the season began.