Everything you need to know about the UK’s connection to torture in Xinjiang

Freedom from Torture has launched a new report, ‘Dangerous Liaisons: UK partnerships with Chinese policing institutions linked to crimes against humanity in Xinjiang’, detailing a UK government funded partnership with police training insitutions in China. 

The report exposes how Boris Johnson’s government funded a partnership, supported by the UK police service, between a UK company and police universities in China, at least one of which  has links to training police in Xinjiang.

What links this government, the police, torture & crimes against humanity in Xinjang?

In recent years the Chinese government have been carrying out brutal and systematic persecution of the Uyghur and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

There's been widespread global condemnation about the atrocities taking place in Xinjiang, and the UK government has been very vocal about the human rights violations.

But at the same time, the UK government is shaking hands with the government responsible for the torturing.

A private British company, the London Policing College, which receives UK taxpayer money for some of its work, has been partnering with police trainers across China . 

In our new report, ‘Dangerous Liaisons: UK partnerships with Chinese policing institutions linked to crimes against humanity in Xinjiang’ we found that this company and its taxpayer funded  project, which is supported by the UK police service, has been doing business with at least one Chinese police college that has links to training police in Xinjiang.

We are therefore extremely concerned that, having funded these partnerships,  the UK government is at risk of  complicity in the very abuses it publicly condemns.

What's happening in Xinjiang?

The police in Xinjiang have been at the forefront of the Chinese government's campaign of violence, against the Uyghur and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities in the region.

This involved mass internment, systematic torture, forced labour and forced strerilisation, amounting to crimes against humanity.  

However the Chinese government propaganda likes to frame Uyghur persecution in Xinjiang as counter-terrorism rather than repression.

The UK government has been very vocal about the human rights violations happening in Xinjiang.

They even issued specific guidance to British companies to help them avoid being complicit in human rights violations in Xinjiang.

These UK policing partnerships are like a rubber stamp of approval on China’s brutal repression in Xinjiang.

How are our taxes linked to torture in Xinjiang?

While condemning the Chinese government’s actions in Xinjiang,  the UK government has been using taxpayer money to fund partnerships with police trainers in China, at least one of which is linked to the region.

Our investigation found  that UK taxpayer money has been given to London Policing College, a private company, with close ties to the UK police service,  which  has provided police training for China.

We’ve also found that China's top policing university, which trains and supplies police to Xinjiang,  boasts of the counter-terrorism training it received in the UK from the London Policing College. 

There is no evidence that London Policing College conducts human rights checks on its work in China- even though the world knows torture is happening in Xinjiang.

We are concerned that the UK partnership is being used in China to fuel propaganda that paints a false picture of horrific abuses carried out in Xinjiang as “counter-terrorism” and that the UK should not be allowing this to happen.