The Xinjiang Victims Database is a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

which attempts to record all currently known individuals who are detained in

Xinjiang internment camps The Xinjiang internment camps, officially called vocational education and training centers by the government of the People's Republic of China, are internment camps operated by the government of Xinjiang and the Chinese Communist Party P ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The database has documented over 16,000 victims. It was founded by Gene Bunin, who started the database in September 2018. The database contains the names and biographical details of people who are thought to be detained in the camps. Many of the profiles also contain personal testimonies by the families and friends of the detainees.

Origin

Gene Bunin is a

Russian-American Russian Americans are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to those that settled in the 19th-century Russian possessions in what is now Alaska. Russia ...

linguistic researcher, who lived in Xinjiang until 2018, when Chinese police forced him to leave. He created the database to “have one place" to store detailed information of people interred in prison camps or disappeared after only "limited attempts" had been made to identify detainees.

Image sourcing controversy

In January 2023, the ''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...

'' reported that images of two Xinjiang police officers listed in the database bore strong resemblances to Hong Kong actors

Andy Lau Tak-wah Andy Lau Tak-wah ( zh, order=t,j, t=劉德華, j=Lau4 Dak1 Waa4; born Lau Fook-wing; 27 September 1961), is a Hong Kong actor, singer-songwriter and film producer. He was named the "Fourth Tiger" among the Five Tiger Generals of TVB in the 1 ...

and

Chow Yun-fat Chow Yun-fat (born 18 May 1955), previously known as Donald Chow, is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility, encompassing action to melodrama and comedy and historical drama, his accolades include three Hong Kong Film Awar ...

. After it drew attention on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

and was mocked by Chinese state media, the Xinjiang Victims Database later responded stating that the data was sourced from "the file cache of a Urumqi database" obtained by the US news organization, ''

The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts online. ''The Intercept'' has published in English since its founding in 2014, and in Portuguese since the 2016 launch of the Brazilia ...

'', which had included a photo of Andy Lau, and added that some of the photos of the police officers “aren’t always of themselves”. The gallery was published on the Xinjiang Victims Database account on January 6.

References

External links

* Person databases Xinjiang conflict {{Database-stub

Origin

Image sourcing controversy

See also

References

External links