Uyghurs in Xinjiang were targeted under a big data program, which has selected and sent over 2,000 to the brainwashing “re-education” camps based on their age or even ties with family members overseas, Human Rights Watch revealed in their report.

The report released on Wednesday called out China’s use of technology in its automated repression of the Muslim population.

The watchdog obtained the Aksu list, which showed that over 2,000 Turkic Muslims have been detained between 2016 and 2018. The big data program, namely the Integrated Joint Operations Platform, flagged the people on the List, whom officials then evaluated and sent to “political education” camps in Xinjiang.

Only about 10% of them were detained for reasons relating to terrorism, the report said, adding that the vast majority of those flagged by the system were detained for “everyday lawful, non-violent behavior.”

Among them was a woman named Ms. T, who was detained after the system had flagged her for “links to sensitive countries,” on the ground that she had received four calls from a foreign number. Human Rights Watch called the number and confirmed that it belongs to her sister.

Other behaviors that the authorities consider suspicious include travelling to “sensitive” countries, “switching off their phone repeatedly”, “being generally untrustworthy”, “born after the 1980s”, having “complex social ties” or “unstable thoughts.”

Human Rights Watch also slammed China for contradicting their claim of keeping Xinjiang safe by “targeting criminals” with “predictive” technologies

No one is spared or given the benefit of the doubt, said Maya Wang, the watchdog’s senior China researcher. “Some of them were detained only because the system flagged them.”

She urged European countries to impose further sanctions on China so as to stop foreign corporations from assisting the country in its development of surveillance technology.

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