43.7934° N, 87.6271° E 

Xinjiang has recently gotten more media attention, after many report showed the Chinese government managing ‘The Uyghur problem’ in a similar way as the Nazi’s did with their ‘Jewish problem’. Locking up > 1 million of the Muslim minority, ‘re-educating them’ while simultaneously solving the organ donation problem by getting mandatory volunteers. Although it was forbidden to take photos [of police], and I was very close to having my camera confiscated 3 times, it was my task as a photographer of German heritage to sneak in with a camera and show you my view on ‘The Uyghur problem’.

The police is everywhere in this Orwellian police state. Every 120 meters you’ll find a swat team with 3-5 heavily armed police and a police bus. Facial tracking is everywhere, and phone searches are done daily. If you don’t give them your password you have a gigantic problem.

I was followed for days by police and I don’t know if some of the people I’ve met on the road are still alive (they started disappearing). Only because I was trained in negotiation, participated in The Negotiation Challenge and knew where to hide my SD-cards, I managed to get out alive, with all the photo’s.

治安 [Public security] is omnipresent

Xinjiang is the only province of China with a Muslim majority

[Shield, helmet, body armour and baseball Bat] Every public building, gas station and most shops have riot gear laying around, to control any potential uprising

Almost all security forces wear a red armband

With family members randomly ‘dissapearing’, many live in fear

Contact with foreigners is forbidden

Chinese flags are everywhere

Everywhere

Every street in every village is covered in flag after flag

The headbands worn show their Turkish roots

Head-scarfs in China, some villages started banning those

A lot of the police and soldiers were recruited from the local Uyghur population. Here is a soldier and a police officer giving a local man a kiss as a greeting

There is so much security, that there is barbed wire and metal detectors on every gas station. This is a gas station somewhere in the desert, with more barbed wire than bricks