The man behind China’s detention of 1 million Muslims

Newly revealed classified documents show a lifelong Han Chinese official in China’s far west played a key role in planning and executing the region’s mass detention campaign.

The documents show that 61-year-old Zhu Hailun directed mass arrests and signed off on notices ordering police to use digital surveillance to target tens of thousands of Uighurs.

Zhu is a rarity among China’s dominant Han Chinese because he is fluent in Uighur, the language of the local Turkic Muslim minority. He spent his entire career in the Xinjiang region and was regarded as a capable but domineering official.

The documents show that camps the Chinese government runs in the country’s far west are forced ideological and behavioral re-education centers, not voluntary job training as Beijing says.