“Spending on security-related construction tripled in 2017 in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of detaining as many as one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims, an academic analysis of government expenditure found. Beijing says its ‘vocational training centers’ in Xinjiang camps teach employment skills and legal knowledge aimed at curbing religious extremism. After initial blanket denials, Chinese officials said in recent weeks they were not enforcing arbitrary detention and political re-education across a network of secret camps, but rather that some citizens guilty of ‘minor offences’ were sent to vocational centers to provide employment opportunities. While prison expenditure doubled between 2016 and 2017, spending on prosecution on criminal suspects was largely flat, indicating it was likely that few of the so-called criminals involved only in minor offenses were put on formal trial.”
Source: Security spending soars in China’s troubled Xinjiang region: report | Reuters
