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> Xinjiang is indeed highly locked down, and foreign reporters are not allowed to enter the region unless they are producing content that aligns with the Chines

> Xinjiang is indeed highly locked down, and foreign reporters are not allowed to enter the region unless they are producing content that aligns with the Chinese government's message. I don't think it's locked down (for non-covid reasons), because I linked an account of the experiences of an NY Times journalist that went there. However, it's definitely true that reporters who aren't there to further the government's message are prevented from doing their jobs buy government minders and police.

commoner 5y ago
Let me clarify what I meant by "locked down". The border situation at Xinjiang is exceptionally invasive. The following investigation is from 2019: > Foreigners crossing certain Chinese borders into the Xinjiang region, where authorities are conducting a massive campaign of surveillance and oppression against the local Muslim population, are being forced to install a piece of malware on their phones that gives all of their text messages as well as other pieces of data to the authorities, a collaboration by Motherboard, Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Guardian, the New York Times, and the German public broadcaster NDR has found. > The Android malware, which is installed by a border guard when they physically seize the phone, also scans the tourist or traveller's device for a specific set of files, according to multiple expert analyses of the software. The files authorities are looking for include Islamic extremist content, but also innocuous Islamic material, academic books on Islam by leading researchers, and even music from a Japanese metal band. > In no way is the downloading of tourists’ text messages and other mobile phone data comparable to the treatment of the Uighur population in Xinjiang, who live under the constant gaze of facial recognition systems, CCTV, and physical searches. Last week, VICE News published an undercover documentary detailing some of the human rights abuses and surveillance against the Uighur population. But the malware news shows that the Chinese government’s aggressive style of policing and surveillance in the Xinjiang region has extended to foreigners, too. > (Update: after the publication of this piece, multiple antivirus firms updated their products to flag the app as malware). https://www.vice.com/en/article/7xgame/at-chinese-border-tourists-forced-to-install-a-text-stealing-piece-of-malware https://www.vice.com/en/article/7xgame/at-chinese-border-tou...
- tablespoon 5y ago
  Yeah, but does that happen on the internal border between Xinjiang and the rest of China? That boarder is more relevant for reporting. However, the surveillance in China is definitely an issue. Journalists have to declare themselves as such in visa applications (or pledge to not do any journalism), all foreigners have to register with the local police wherever they're staying (hotels do this for you behind the scenes), and I think pretty much all long distance travel requires ID. So the government knows who the journalists are, where they are, and can swarm them with minders to manage what they see (and intimidate people from speaking to them). I've read multiple reports that say that's exactly what happens when (good) journalists visit Xinjiang.

commoner 5y ago

Let me clarify what I meant by "locked down". The border situation at Xinjiang is exceptionally invasive. The following investigation is from 2019: > Foreigners crossing certain Chinese borders into the Xinjiang region, where authorities are conducting a massive campaign of surveillance and oppression against the local Muslim population, are being forced to install a piece of malware on their phones that gives all of their text messages as well as other pieces of data to the authorities, a collaboration by Motherboard, Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Guardian, the New York Times, and the German public broadcaster NDR has found. > The Android malware, which is installed by a border guard when they physically seize the phone, also scans the tourist or traveller's device for a specific set of files, according to multiple expert analyses of the software. The files authorities are looking for include Islamic extremist content, but also innocuous Islamic material, academic books on Islam by leading researchers, and even music from a Japanese metal band. > In no way is the downloading of tourists’ text messages and other mobile phone data comparable to the treatment of the Uighur population in Xinjiang, who live under the constant gaze of facial recognition systems, CCTV, and physical searches. Last week, VICE News published an undercover documentary detailing some of the human rights abuses and surveillance against the Uighur population. But the malware news shows that the Chinese government’s aggressive style of policing and surveillance in the Xinjiang region has extended to foreigners, too. > (Update: after the publication of this piece, multiple antivirus firms updated their products to flag the app as malware). https://www.vice.com/en/article/7xgame/at-chinese-border-tourists-forced-to-install-a-text-stealing-piece-of-malware https://www.vice.com/en/article/7xgame/at-chinese-border-tou...

tablespoon 5y ago
Yeah, but does that happen on the internal border between Xinjiang and the rest of China? That boarder is more relevant for reporting. However, the surveillance in China is definitely an issue. Journalists have to declare themselves as such in visa applications (or pledge to not do any journalism), all foreigners have to register with the local police wherever they're staying (hotels do this for you behind the scenes), and I think pretty much all long distance travel requires ID. So the government knows who the journalists are, where they are, and can swarm them with minders to manage what they see (and intimidate people from speaking to them). I've read multiple reports that say that's exactly what happens when (good) journalists visit Xinjiang.