From Chen Quanguo's Appointment to the Detention of One Million Uyghurs: Ten Years Later, Xinjiang's Repression Has Not Been Accounted For, and Beijing Is Now Selling "Normalization" to the World

Human Rights Watch released a report on August 27, stating that the large-scale repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims by the Chinese Communist Party has lasted for ten years, with arbitrary detention, surveillance, cultural erasure, and forced labor still ongoing. Four years after the UN's 2022 report, Beijing has not seen any substantial accountability.

On August 27, Human Rights Watch released its latest report, putting the Xinjiang issue back on the international human rights agenda. The organization believes that the Chinese government's severe repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims over the past decade constitutes "crimes against humanity," and these policies continue to this day in various forms.

The report does not list historical projects that have already ended. Human Rights Watch states that large-scale arbitrary detention, unjust imprisonment, comprehensive surveillance, religious and cultural erasure, travel and communication restrictions, and pressure on overseas Uyghurs can still be observed. At the same time, forced labor in Xinjiang continues to be linked to global supply chains for products such as automobiles, solar panels, clothing, seafood, agricultural products, and key minerals.

The first key node on the timeline is around

1. The Chinese Communist Party rapidly expanded its so-called "anti-terrorism" and "de-extremization" policies in Xinjiang, and large-scale detention facilities appeared subsequently. The UN, human rights organizations, media, and satellite research have recorded the existence of re-education camps, surveillance systems, and family separations.

The second key node is August 31,

1. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released an assessment report on Xinjiang, stating that the serious human rights violations in the region "may constitute international crimes, particularly crimes against humanity." Beijing rejected the report and called the related accusations "anti-China political operations."

Four years later, Human Rights Watch believes that what is truly lacking is not more evidence, but accountability.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk acknowledged in 2024 that many problematic laws and policies still exist; by February 2026, he expressed regret over China's lack of implementation of previous suggestions and accountability. Human Rights Watch criticized the fact that the UN system has not provided sufficient public follow-up since the 2022 report.

Meanwhile, Beijing is changing the external image of Xinjiang. Official propaganda increasingly emphasizes tourism, economic development, ethnic unity, and so-called "normal life," attempting to repackage Xinjiang from an international human rights crisis to a development and stability success story. However, Human Rights Watch points out that the surface-level normalization does not mean that the previously established surveillance, criminal justice, and political control systems have been dismantled.

More alarming to the international community is the issue of forced labor. The United States has passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, imposing import restrictions on related products from Xinjiang; the EU has also established an import ban on products made with forced labor. Human Rights Watch is now calling on Canada, Australia, the UK, and Japan to establish or strengthen similar measures and for the EU to list Xinjiang as a high-risk area in its upcoming forced labor risk database.

This makes the Xinjiang issue not just a human rights case within China, but a responsibility issue for the global trade system. If products made with forced labor can enter the international market through multiple suppliers and third-party processing, overseas consumers and multinational corporations may unknowingly continue to provide economic benefits to the Chinese Communist Party's oppressive system.

Ten years later, the heaviest questions still have not been answered: Where are the people who were detained on a large scale? How many were sentenced? Which officials designed and implemented these policies? What compensation have the victimized families received? Beijing has never established an independent investigation mechanism, nor has it allowed victims to testify publicly without fear of retaliation.

The Chinese Communist Party is trying to make the world believe that "Xinjiang has returned to normal," but what can truly prove normalization is not tourist propaganda videos, but the closure of arbitrary detention systems, the cessation of forced labor, the restoration of religious and cultural freedom, and the allowance of independent international investigators to enter.

If the ten-year repression ultimately does not result in anyone being held accountable through truly independent judicial procedures, then the so-called "stability" only means that the victims have been forced into silence, rather than justice having occurred.