The Karakax List: Dissecting the Anatomy of Beijing’s Internment Drive in Xinjiang
February 17, 2020The “Karakax List”, named after the county of Karakax (Qaraqash) in Hotan Prefecture . . . presents the strongest evidence to date that Beijing is actively persecuting and punishing normal practices of traditional religious beliefs . . . the Karakax List outlines the reasons why 311 persons were interned and reveals the cognition behind the decision-making processes as to whether individuals can be released or not.
The listed reasons for internment range from vagueness such as “untrustworthy person born in a certain decade”, to someone with a “minor religious infection” (受宗教极端思想感染轻微人员), or those who “by clicking on a website unintentionally landed on a foreign website” (点击网站链接无意登陆境外网站). Others were interned because their “thinking is hard to grasp” (思想难掌握), they had a “complicated network of relationships” (人际交往复杂), “petition other persons without reasons” (无正当理由缠访闹访人员), is “disassociated from society” (游离于社会面), “applied for a passport but did not actually leave the country” (办理护照未出境), merely has “relatives abroad” (境外有亲属), only “suspected of having watched downloaded terrorist or other religious extremist videos” (具有观看下载传播暴恐音视频或其他类宗教极端音视频的嫌疑), has “talked to persons overseas” (境外通联), used to wear a veil many years ago (such as e.g. from 2012 to 2014), used to grow a long beard years ago (in one instance between 2010 and 2014), used a phone with a number that is not registered to the person’s name, or merely “communicated with a detained person”. Often, these little “sins” are lumped together to justify internment. For example, a person may have traveled overseas and used to grow a beard.