>> china has enforced lock downs in 14 mo provinces and cities... >> narrator: before china was at the center of the coronavirus pandemic... >> beijing tries to show it's in control of the epidemic. >> narrator: ...a very different human tragedy. >> the number of people that can be held is unprecedent >> narrator: the crackdown on chinese muslims. >> (disguised voice 1 >> narrator: frontline goes undercover... >> (disguised voice 2): >> narrator: to expose a next-generation surveillance state. now, "china undercover". >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers likyou.

thank you. and by the corporation for public brocasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t.fo macarthudation, committed to building a more just, verda and peaceful wld. more information at macfound.org.th ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. at fordfouation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation,te commto excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heitening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessnerfa ly trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inires. and by the frontline journalism fund, wid major support from jon jo ann hagler.

♪ >> (muyeser): >> narrator: a message-- from a woman to her husband-- secretly sent fmewhere over these mountains. >> (muyeser): >> (sadyrzhan): >> narrar: this is sadyrzhan.

two years ago, his w muyeser, went to visit her parentin china. she never returned. >> (sadyrzhan): >> narrator: she lefbehind three children. >> (muyeser): >> narrator: soon after she disappred, muyeser managed to smuggle out a short video from what looks like a detention camp. ♪ estimated two million chinese muslims have been held in camps like this, which the chinesees government hasibed as "vocational education and training centers." muyeser's message ends with afa well to her family.

>> (muyeser): ♪ >> narrator: march 201 sadyrzhan is on his way from his homen kazakhstan to the chinese border. he's a uyghur, a largely muslim ethnic minority in china, that has been targeted by the communist regime. he's now looking for information about his wife and when she might be released. filming is discouraged on the rder, so we're shooting discreetly on a phon >> (sadyrzhan):

>> (man): >> (sadyrzhan): >> narrator: sadyrzhan wants to call a contact inside china whoi knows hi. but the chinese authorities igmonitor calls made from n numbers, so he needs to use a phone with a chinese sim card. >> (sadyrzhan): (music playing on phone eaker) >> (man on phone and sadyrzhan): >> (sadyrzhan): >> narrator: he ge through to his contact. >> (sadyrzn): >> narrator: chinese technology is advanced enough to be alerted spby certain words, so thek in code. >> (sadyrzhan): >> (man on phone): >> (sadyrzhan): (dial tone humming)

>> narrator: "studying" means she is being detained. >> (sadyrzhan): >> narrator: sadyrzhan's become a vocal adcate for uyghur rights. in (horse nei >> (sadyrzhan): (people cheering and whistling) >> narrator: xinjiang is the thgion of china just beyonis border. it means "new territory." >> (speaking local language) >> narrator: uyghur musls-- with their own culture and

language-- have been living 1 there for ov,000 years. but the territory was ded by china's qi dynasty around 250 years ago and brought under chinese control. ♪ the regime tightly guards access to xinjiang, and journalists are not able to work freely there. ♪ we decide to go undercover. we've been warned that uyghursr are ungular surveillance and foreigners would be followed. here in northern thailand, we are introduced to someone willing to help-- a businessman who often works with journalists. he's part of china's han ethnic majority, which will ge him more freedom to travel and film. but it's still dangerous.we e disguising his voice and calling him li.

>> (li): >> narrator: if caught secretly filming, he could be imprisoned. >> (li): ♪ >> narrator: xinjiang is china'e largeson. while uyghurs and otslims are the majority, for over 60 years, the government has encouraged han chinese to settle here. they make up around 40% of the population. ♪

in early 2019, li touches down in the regional capital, ürümqi. ♪ >> (li): >> (speaking local language) >> narrator: li is posing as a businessman, looking new opportunities while on vacation. some things can be filmed openly here.

but photography in many places is forbidden. the police are everywhere- shots of them have to be taken quickly. ♪ travelg with a uyghur taxi driver, li is told there's one rule for han chinese like him at checkpoints and another for uyghurs. >> (taxi driver): ♪ ug narrator: li secretly films himself going thh several checkpoints on the stree. >> (li):

(metal detector beeping) ♪ >> narrator: in another taxi-- this time with a han chinesedr er-- the conversation turns to relations between han chinese and uyghurs. >> (taxi driver): >> (taxi driver): ♪ >> narrator: in 2009, thousands of uyghurs rioted after police against the killing of two

uyghurs in ather part of china. (tear gas gun fires) accordg to the government, almost 200 people-- mainly h chinese-- were killed. during the violence and police crackdown at followed, an unknown number of uyghurs re killed and thousands imprisoned. >> this was a watershed moment in the recent history of xinjiang. the view of uyghurs among han chinese changed dramatically. (fanfare playing)to >> nar then, three years later, china got a new leader. >> xi jinping comes to power in 2012, and he's invested a loof energy in establishing greater controls over speech. dissent in, in xi's china.r (fanfare continues) now, what is china?

it's a place that is defined by han chinese traditions, the han chinese official language of mandarin. and there is increasingl little space for uyghurs in atthis imagination of, of china is. (fanfare ends) >> narrator: after xi jinping became president, a series of high-profile, violent attacks took place across chin ♪ some were carried out by uyghur separatists and islamist militants. ♪ one was here in the heart of beijing, in ananmen square. in total, more than 100, mainly

han chinese, were killed in e attacks. >> from xi's perspective, what's being fought in china is a new version of the war on terror, and that the uyghurs are a problem that are not going to go alay, and that need to be with. >> narrator: according to chinese government files leaked to the new york times, president xi tolofficials to unless the tools of "dictatorship"o eradicate radical islam in xinjiang. chinese officials have dismissed this as "total nonsense and a pack of lies." llowing the militants' attacks, the chinese authorities cracked down on the entire uyghur population and launched a muslim in xinjiang.nt of every >> you start out wit100 points, and you're a safe person, and then for each category that applies to you, you're deducted ten points.

some of the categories arefor instance: are you a uyghur? are you between the ag of 15 and 55?av do youislamic knowledge? do you pray regularly? ♪ do you have relatives living abroad? do you have a passport? ♪ go thrnment quickly realized that the number of unsafe people that they re finding was quite large. so, e state began to build o camps on a large scale. >> narrator: the chinese government initially denied these camps even existed.ov bu the course of a year, satellite imagery revealed enormous, prison-like structures being built.

dronfootage from xinjiang appears to show rge numbers of shackled prisoners. ♪ and thousands of uyghurs living abroad suddenly lost contact with relatives in china. this is gulzire, a uyghur refugee living in germany. over twoears ago, she received a chilling voice message from her sister. >> (gulgine): >> (gulzire):

r, narrator: gulzire's sis gulgine, was living in malaysia, but had decided to go back to xinjiang when their pants stopped replying to messages. >> (gulzire): ♪ (people talking in background) >> narrator: aonth later, gulzire was told by a friend in xinjiang that her sister wasud ng-- the code word for being detained.

no one knew when gulgine would be released. >> (gulzire): >> (gulgine): >> (gulzire): narrator: during this time, china was believed to have built around 1,200 detention camps

that held an estimated two million uyghurs and other muslims-- what experts have described as the largest mass incarceration of an ethnic group since the holocaust. ♪ >> (gulzire): >> narrator: back in xinjiang, our undercer colleague, li, is trying to find people willing to talk about the camps. a week into his trip, he has ati chance m with a uyghur who speaks english. but he's afraid to speak openly.

>> narrator: li discoverthat this uyghur man's parents have been sent to a camp.

>> (reporter): >> narrator: china has tried to portray the camps in a positive light. >> (woman): >> (announcer): >> (group): >> (woman 2): >> (announcer): >> (woman 3): >> (man): >> (all):

>> (woman): n rator: but classified chinese government documents obtained by the international consortium of investigative journalists reveal a much different picture of life inside the camps. the documents depict the camps as involuntary indoctrinatn centers with high watchtowers, ,nstant camera surveillan harsh punishments, and dedicatee poases to prevent escapes. ♪ it difficult to find former detainees inside xinjiangal willing toabout the camps. but back in kazakhstan, so muslims who fled here after being released are more open t about why experienced. ):

>> (rahi >> (gulzira): ♪ >> (rahima):

>> (gulzira): >> (rahima): >> narrator: chinese officialsno woulagree to speak to us on camera about xinjiang and the camps. but in written responses, a spokesman said, "requirements on specting and safeguardin human rights are strictly followed, the dignity of the trainees are fully respected, and insults and cruelties of any form are strictly prohibited." ♪

across xinjiang,here are growing concer that the uyghur way of life is under threat. our colleague li heads to kashgar, the uyghurs' cultural capital. >> (speaking local language) no longer allowed to learn the uyghur language or culture at school. li visits a local mosque. >> (li):

>> narrator: li hears the same story from han chinese he meets during his travels. >> (won): ♪ >> narrator: there has been mounting evidence coming out of xinjiang of a systematic aack on uyghur culture.e satellagery shows the partial or complete demolition of morthan two dozen islamic religious sites, including mosques. the chinese government told us nat only one mosque has b demolished for safety reasons, and the rest are being repaired, and that people of all ethnic groups enjoy full freedom of

religious belief. ♪ >> (gulzire): >> (boy): >> nartor: in germany, as gulzire awaits word on her sister, she is teaching her son to speak uyghur. (both speaking uyghur) >> (gulzire): (both speaking uyghur) >> (gulzire):

(both speaking uyghur) ♪ i >> narratoxinjiang, the chinese regime closely watches the uyghurs. li films sophisticated surveillance cameras on most every street. it's part of a technogy revolution sin president xi came to power. ( jinping): >> narrator: there are an estimated 1,400 tech ces, mostly chinese, working in xinjiang. many are involved in the surveillance systems being used there.♪

♪ it's rare for anyone from these abcompanies to speak openlt their work, but one insider agreed to talk to us about the surveillance technoly he helped develop. he has since left china and spoke on the condition we conceal his identity and notdi lose where he currently lives. ♪ >> (engineer >> narrator: he says his work iv xinjiangled to him the ways the government gathers data on the uyghupopulation. >> (engineer):

♪ >> narrator: it's not just the uyghurs who are subject to this intense surveillce. in kazakhstan, we interviewed chineskazakhs, also muslims, who say they experienced the same monitoring when they lived in xinjiang. sh >>pan):

>> in 2017, the chinese state began a data collection process, which is really what suppos the technology in general. they asked all people in the province to go to their local police station and submit data, which ranged from dnaoo collection, bld, and fingerprints, to saking into a microphone to get a unique voice signature f each person. and to have a facial scan. >> (speaking local language) >> narrator: the chinese authorities also use more direct methods through two programs called homestay and becoming family. han chinese are sent into the homes of muslims like this one. >> (man):

>> narrator: visitors are described by the authorities as "relatives."'r in reality, thworking for the government. >> the relatives are inputting data that they're gathering that atesents a biographical profile for each person that they're monitoring. >> (sholpan):

(singing): >> narrator: the chinese n governmentot respond to our questions about thera progms. publicly, they say they're promoting national unity andod uctivity. many uyghurs' houses are also individually marked with digital barcodes. li films them. ♪ >> police officers ce on a regular basis to scan that code, and then the code would pull up your file on their smartphone. and then they would make surepe that only the le that are registered for that house are in that house.

>> narrator: uyghurs and other muslims are also required to install an app on their phoneson toor for content the government deems suspicious. there's an emerging ecosystem of apps being developed by the police ixinjiang, all of which lead to a level of intrusiveness into everyday life that, that is unprecedented. ♪ >>,arrator: while in xinjia li is introduced to a security official in the government. he secretly films theco ersation. icwe're concealing the offl's identity. he's surprisingly candid. >> (official):

>> (official): >> narrator: in its responses to us, e chinese government sai "the security situation in xinjiang has been eatly improved," and, "there is more effective prottion of the freedom of religious belief and human rights of uyghur muslims." ♪ (radio running in background) one of the chinese gernment's ntracts in xinjiang is with the technology company leon.

>> in xinjiang aonomous region, leon assists communication operators to jointly build informations society ba fifth generation. >> nrator: leon has helped t authorities build what many experts consider the most complete surveillae state in history. >> ...local government with providing border security. in xinjiang production and construction corps, leon helps shihezi's project of tranquil city., in kashgon support local public security bureau in constructing and operating security and protection system. (phone camera rustling) >> narrator: our colleague, li, hnages to get a meeting w leon executives, saying he's interested in possible business with them. >> (leon executive): e

>> (lecutive 2): >> narrator: the executives tell li that the cameras are provided by hikvision, the world's largest surveillance-camera manufacturer. it's one of eight tech companiee blacklby the u.s. government over concerns about hun-rights violations in xinjiang. >> (leon executive 2): >> (leon executive 2): >> narrator: the engineer who helped develop xinjiang' mass-surveillance system explained how these companies'

technology works. >> (engineer):

>> narrator: his account matches reports byther tech perts and human-rights researchers. the leon executives tell li about even more sophisticated technology their company has helped the government implement. >> (leon executive 2): >> (leon executive 2): >> leon participates in makers of cloud data room in order to ensure the information enabled. >> narrator: a leon promotional video gives some hints aboutis evolutionary new system. >> ...committed to informatization to help the

government establish more efficient informatization system and provide perfect services for operation and maintenance. >> narrato the former engineer from xinjiang said the system is called the integrated joint operations platform. >> (engineer): ar >> ntor: powered by artificial intelligence, or a.i., the system tries to identify behavior the governmenr consthreatening. >> (engineer):

♪ >> it's an environment where cutting-edge chinese tech companies can demonstrate thef capacities oeir a.i.-driven atstems to control a populion. communication with relevant countries and attract more countries and regions...he >> narrator:hinese government would not answer questions abt the integrated joint operations platform; neither would anyone from leon. as for hikvision, it told us it's not involved in the opation of its equipment, "takes its responsibility to protect human rights serious" and has hired an expert to ensure human-rights compliance.

>> to participate in... >> narrator: there's an expanding market for this type of a.i. surveillance technology, not just in china, but around the world.in i's meeting with leon executives, it's clear they're looking to take advante of this. >> (leon executive 2): >> (leon executive 1): >> (engineer): >> (li):

>> narrator: already, chinese xinjiang-- are supplying in technology to more than 60 countries. >> xinjiang has global implications, cause what we're seeing is the early stages of a new form of goveance: control through advanced, predictive, algorithmic rveillance. those systems will be exported, and that would be a massive setback to the cause of human freedom, if you like-- to, tobe l democracy around the world. >> we are coming. no distance. no disharmony. you and me.

♪ >> narrator: leon is just one of many tech companies in xinjiange working withtate to enforce surveillance.on another of the chinese companies connected to surveillance work in xinjiang iw , the world's largest telecommunications firm, which the u.s. has classified as a threat to national security. (announcer speaking mandin) huawei insists that its work in xinjiang is only "general purpose and based on global standards," and "complies with all applicable laws." >> huawei's activities in xinjiang are actually quite extensive, despite some of the company's clai. they're involved in public-secury projects, they're involved in cloud-computing projects. huawei'sctivities are directly connected to the human-rights violations that we're seeing fold in xinjiang.

we're talking about a police state where many people are confined in camps, but even e people who aret e living virtually in a, in a prison. ♪ >> narrator: our undercoverll gue, li, is now safely out of xinjiang and china. >> (li):

♪ >> narrator: after li left xinjiang, there was dramatic news. in december 2019, amid increasing international scnttiny, the chinese govern suddenly announced that everyone in the cam had been released.t >> (shohkir): ♪ >> narrator: there has not been any independrification of china's announment, and the governnt wouldn't give us any additional information about the releases.

(bell tolling) (boy shouting happily) >> narrator: many uyghurs living abroad are skeptical of the chinese government claims. (gulzire and boy tal) >> (gulzire): >> narrato gulzire has heard through a contact in chi that her sister gulgine might have been one of those released from detention. >> (gulzire):

♪ ♪

>> narrator: back in kazakhstan, muslims who have lefiang say that when detainees are released from the camps, they emerge transformed. >> (sholpan): ♪ >> narrator: we last met sarzhan on the chinese-kazakhstan border a year ago. t's still trying to find exactly what's happened to his wife in xinjiang. >> (sadyrzhan):

♪ w narrator: he believes s released from detention, but doesn't know where she is now. the only thing he's heard is this message she sent to a mutual contact. >> (muyeser): >> (sadyrzhan): >> (talking, laughing)

>> (sadyrzhan): >> narrator: he's also seen photos of his wife, which were posted on chinese social media. >> (whining) >> (sadyrzhan): ♪

>> (speaking local langue) >> (sadyrzhan): (children singing in russian): (all talking in background) (fatima singing in russian):

>> go to pbs.org/frontline for an interview with kee film of this program. and find out about the u.s. response to china's treatmentyg of thers. listen to new episodes of our podcast "the frontlineat di". >> "covering coravirus" is a series of conversations with our journalists inhe field. >> when you hear the orders to stay at home the reality for many of these people is th don't have a home. >> connect to the frontline community on facebook and twitter, and watch anytime on the pbs video app, or pbs.org/frontline. >> narrator:oming to frontline... >> today the world health organization officially callang it a pdemic... >> narrator: from washington state... >> washington state is reportint more deaths fr virus... >> narrator: to washington d.c.

>> anybody that needs a test gets a test, they'here. >> narrator: correspondent miles o'brien vestigates... >> patient number one arrived here in this. >> he did. >> narrator: when politics d science collide. a frontline special rert,ru "coronas pandemic". coming in two weeks to frontline. >> frontne is made possible by contributions to your station from viewers like you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provideby the john d. and catherint. to building a more verdantitted and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. the ford foundation: working with visionaries on then fron of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust.

supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journali fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. captioned by media access group awgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other "frontline" programs, visit our website pbs.org/frontline. ♪ frontline's, "china undercover" is available on amazon prime video.

♪ ♪ you're watching pbs. ♪ ♪ ♪

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