Of terror and tourism: Resourceful AP reporting from the Uyghur homeland in China
A farmer walks past Chinese government propaganda depicting ethnic minority residents reading the constitution with a slogan reading: “Unity, Stability is fortune, Separatism and Turmoil is misfortune,” near Kashgar in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, March 19, 2021. Four years after Beijing’s brutal crackdown on largely Muslim minorities native to Xinjiang, Chinese authorities are dialing back the region’s high-tech police state and stepping up tourism. But even as a sense of normality returns, fear of the authorities remains, hidden but pervasive. (AP Photo / Ng Han Guan)
By Dake Kang, Han Guan Ng, Mark Schiefelbein and Emily Wang
Although discussion of Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority often focuses on China’s massive Xinjiang province, it’s rare for foreign journalists to actually get access. But access is key to establishing the credibility of conflicting claims by both Xinjiang activists and the Chinese government.
Persistence and dedication by AP journalists won that access, enabling AP to make two trips to the region — the first private, the second hosted by the Chinese government.
Students braid wigs during a class at the Peyzawat Training School in Peyzawat County in China’s far west Xinjiang region, during a state-organized tour for foreign media, April 19, 2021. – AP Photo / Mark Schiefelbein
Tour guides stand in front of a large photo depicting different ethnic groups in Xinjiang at the “Exhibition of the Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism” in Urumqi, capital of China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, during a government-organized visit, April 21, 2021. – AP Photo / Mark Schiefelbein
Pedestrians walk past a police station in Urumqi, capital of China’s far west Xinjiang region, April 21, 2021. – AP Photo / Dake Kang
A bare overhead support, with wires and brackets where surveillance cameras once hung, stands over an intersection in Urumqi, the capital of China’s far west Xinjiang region, April 21, 2021. – AP Photo / Dake Kang
Chinese government officials look at a display of handguns seized in security operations in Xinjiang at the “Exhibition of the Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism” in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, during a government-organized visit, April 21, 2021. – AP Photo / Mark Schiefelbein
Uyghur-language copies of writings by Mao Zedong and Chinese President Xi Jinping sit on the shelves of the “ethnic minority language book” section of a bookstore in Aksu, in China’s far west Xinjiang region, March 18, 2021. – AP Photo / Dake Kang
Uyghur-themed fridge magnets are displayed at a naan museum in Urumqi, the capital of China’s far west Xinjiang region, April 21, 2021. Chinese authorities are dialing back the region’s high-tech police state and stepping up tourism. – AP Photo / Dake Kang
Tourists pose for photos as one person sits atop a camel outside the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, in China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, during a government-organized visit, April 19, 2021. – AP Photo / Mark Schiefelbein
Visitors pose for photos with a giant plastic sculpture of a piece of Uyghur’s naan bread at the International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, during a government-organized visit, April 22, 2021. – AP Photo / Mark Schiefelbein
Uyghurs and other members of the Muslim faith pray during services at the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, in far west China’s Xinjiang region, during a government-organized visit for foreign journalists, April 19, 2021. – AP Photo / Mark Schiefelbein
During a government-organized visit for foreign journalists on April 19, 2021, Mamatjan Ahat, a truck driver, stands in the courtyard of his home in Aksu, in far west China’s Xinjiang region, after telling journalists he recanted religion. – AP Photo / Mark Schiefelbein
Students training to become imams recite verses from the Quran at the Xinjiang Islamic Institute in Urumqi, capital of China’s far west Xinjiang region, during a government-organized visit for foreign journalists, April 21, 2021. – AP Photo / Mark Schiefelbein
Young Uyghur men play billiards in Poksam County, in China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, March 21, 2021. – AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
A security person watches from a guard tower around a detention facility in Yarkent County, in China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, March 21, 2021. – AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
Residents walk past government propaganda, some of which reads, “Socialist core values,” in Hotan, in China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, March 22, 2021. – AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
A vendor selling Uyghur naan bread waits for customers on a street in Shule County, in China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, March 20, 2021. – AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
Delivery workers flying Chinese national flags ride in a convoy to promote their services in Shule County, in China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, March 20, 2021. – AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
A mosque displays the banner “Love the Party, Love the Country” near Shule County, in China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, March 20, 2021. – AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
Ethnic minority veterans wearing commemorative buttons, some featuring Chairman Mao Zedong, greet each other at a flea market in Poksam County, in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, March 21, 2021. – AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
A billboard displays Chinese President Xi Jinping with a patriotic slogan in Yarkent County, in China’s far west Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, March 21, 2021. – AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
During the first, multiformat correspondent Dake Kang, chief photographer Han Guan Ng and video journalist Emily Wang were tailed throughout their visit, and since virtually no hotel would take foreigners, they spent one night sleeping inside the car at a highway rest stop. Their minders parked in formation around them, shining headlights at their car all night long. Kang spent another night at a hotpot joint dozing on his seat. While the team was working, the minders disrupted interviews and dissuaded people from talking to AP.
The second trip, by Kang, photographer Mark Schiefelbein and Greater China news director Ken Moritsugu, was with the government, and the obstacle there was separating fact from fiction. Kang was told constant lies, down to the claim that a mosque was open 24 hours a day when in fact it had been closed on the previous visit.
The barbed wire is almost gone. So are the armored personnel carriers. Young Uyghur men are back on the streets. Beijing is slackening its grip on Xinjiang after a brutal mass detention campaign, but fear remains pervasive. https://t.co/57tMwvg3DK
The biggest challenge in writing the piece was balance. As Kang put it: “How do you write about an atrocity lightening up, while emphasizing that it was and continues to be an atrocity?” The resulting story addresses that delicate point by reporting the changes in the region while putting them in the context of China’s harsh legacy of repression against the Uyghurs.
The story was rich in personal detail throughout,with the text and photos evoking a remote region that attracts tourism even as many still live in fear of Chinese authority. It also drew on the subtleties and insights Kang has gleaned from years of covering the Uyghurs, providing pointed analysis.
AP’s reporting balances policy changes in Xinjiang against China’s harsh legacy of repression in the region.
The best sign that the story succeeded may have been a quote from Gene Bunin,a prominent Xinjiang researcher and founder of the Xinjiang Victims Database: “Uyghur activists will hate if for not fitting their agenda,as will the tankie trolls. But it’s the truth.”
For a rare and illuminating on-the-ground look at the Uyghur homeland and Chinese policy in Xinjiang,the team of Kang,Ng, Schiefelbein and Wang is AP’s Best of the Week — Second Winner.
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