China lied about Dabancheng detention center

Last updated Nov 18, 2022

• In April 2021, Associated Press journalists got a state-led tour through Urumqi No. 3 Detention Center in Dabancheng.^[https://apnews.com/article/business-religion-china-only-on-ap-f89c20645e69208a416c64d229c072de]
• Urumqi Public Security Bureau director Zhao Zhongwei insisted it had nothing to do with detention centers.

  During the April tour of No. 3 in Dabancheng, officials repeatedly distanced it from the “training centers” that Beijing claims to have closed.

• Zhao Zhongwei claimed no re-education camp has ever been around there.

  “There was no connection between our detention center and the training centers,” insisted Urumqi Public Security Bureau director Zhao Zhongwei. “There’s never been one around here.”

• This is demonstrably false, because the facility used to be “Urumqi City Vocational Skills Training Center.”
  • In 2018, Reuters went and photographed the facility. The nameplate was 乌鲁木齐市职业技能教育培训中心.^[https://twitter.com/dakekang/status/1418123204221100033]
    • When AP went in April 2021, the nameplate was changed to 乌鲁木齐市第三看守所.
  • Publicly available documents collected by Shawn Zhang, a law student in Canada, confirm that a center by the same name was commissioned to be built at the same location in 2017.^[https://medium.com/@shawnwzhang/largest-re-education-camp-d7d6ce15e273]
  • Records also show that Chinese conglomerate Hengfeng Information Technology won an $11 million contract for outfitting the Urumqi “training center”.^[ https://www.i-hengfeng.com/upload/file/20171120/1511175279206017976.pdf]
  • A former construction worker told AP that it was the same building, converted to a detention facility in 2019.
    • “All the former students inside became prisoners,” he said.