Earlier this month, a Chinese firm that has cashed in on deploying AI-powered surveillance gear in Xinjiang momentarily published some of its code online, providing a glimpse into how tech firms track the region’s Uighur population on behalf of the Chinese government.
In what can only be described as a massive fuck-up, someone—likely a software engineer employed by Dahua Technology, the surveillance-gear supplier—posted the company’s software development kit for video tracking tools, which are built specifically to identify Uighurs.
The code includes race-based tagging and tracking, as well as seemingly harmless physical-trait identifiers like whether a scanned subject has a beard, wears a mask, or carries a handbag or backpack. Among other visibly quantifiable traits, it classifies the clothing that a person is wearing, and, apparently, the person’s emotional state: NORMAL, ANGER, DISGUST, FEAR, CONFUSED, SCREAM, and more.
As long as someone who is already tracked stays within view of Dahua’s cameras, the algorithm can determine what mode of transportation they rode on, down to the vehicle’s make, as well as identify its license plate. And the system is designed to be embedded into any piece of hardware with a camera and internet connection, co-opting things like ATMs into part of the network of devices that track Uighurs.
Dahua is partially state-owned and its shares are traded on the stock market in Shenzhen. It is China’s second largest surveillance company, according to a report by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post. In October 2019, Dahua was placed on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List because it was “implicated in human rights violations and abuses in China’s campaign targeting Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities” in Xinjiang—part of a campaign that scholars and observers have characterized as cultural genocide.
Xinjiang is supposed to be an autonomous region, but make no mistake-- it is firmly under the iron grip of the Chinese government, with CCP cadres dispatched to oversee security matters under the guise of counterterrorism and poverty alleviation. The latest revelation about Dahua's software only serves as a chilling reminder that Chinese tech companies are now serving up an automated means to monitor, track, and surveil people in Xinjiang, sealing their fate within algorithmic black boxes.
The Chinese government implements draconian measures to suppress Uighur Muslims’ expression of culture and religion. It has banned “abnormally long” beards and jailed men who refuse to shave their facial hair; the verdict in one case was a six-year prison sentence. Women are not allowed to wear veils in public. In the past three years, thousands of mosques have been demolished or damaged. Historical sites and cemeteries have been razed in the past decade.
Xinjiang’s Uighurs may also be detained if they communicate with people outside of the region, particularly if they use VPNs and blocked apps like WhatsApp. Even setting a clock or watch two hours behind Beijing to “Ürümqi time” can draw scrutiny from the authorities.
At any given time, up to a million Uighurs are kept in 400 "thought-transformation" facilities (i.e., detention camps) built by the Chinese government. This form of detention is arbitrary, with cited reasons including “minor religious infection,” “relatives abroad,” and even “thinking is hard to grasp.” At these sites, there are classes to “reform” Uighurs who are kept against their will through what the Chinese government calls “education and vocational training.” Uighurs who have “graduated” from these facilities say that the Chinese government’s ultimate goal is to erase their language and traditions.
Although there are no gas chambers in Xinjiang, the Chinese government's effort to wipe out the Uighur's cultural identity is nothing more than genocide.
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