‘High-Tech Gulag: China’s Crimes Against Uyghurs’ book launched at State Assembly

A launch event for journalist and sinologist Mathias Bölinger’s book High-Tech Gulag: China’s Crimes Against Uyghurs was held at the Bavarian State Assembly.

The Bavarian State Assembly hosted a launch event for journalist and sinologist Mathias Bölinger’s book “High-Tech Gulag- China’s Crimes Against Uyghurs” on January 28, 2025, in Munich. The event was organized by Deputy Speaker of the Bavarian State Assembly, Uyghur ally Markus Rinderspacher, and the Ilham Tohti Initiative.

Mathias Bölinger, the author of the book, attended the event in person and gave an introductory speech about his work. The event attracted significant attention from politicians, academics, journalists, and members of the Uyghur community.

High-Tech Gulag: China’s Crimes Against Uyghurs

No other region in the world faces such intense electronic surveillance as East Turkestan. In “Der Hightech Gulag: Chinas Verbrechen gegen die Uiguren” (High-Tech Gulag: China’s Crimes Against the Uyghurs), Mathias Bölinger details how China has established a vast system of surveillance and repression, with a dense network of camps.

In 2016, Chen Quanguo, the Party Secretary of the Uyghur Autonomous Region, issued an order to “imprison everyone who needs to be imprisoned” and to “eradicate them.” As a result, approximately one-tenth of the Uyghur population was incarcerated in overcrowded re-education camps.

Mathias Bölinger conducted numerous interviews with eyewitnesses, using their testimonies to reveal the ongoing climate of fear, arrests, interrogations, and both psychological and physical torture. He also explores how China’s distrust of Muslim Turkic peoples evolved, from imperial times through the Cultural Revolution to the current era under Xi Jinping, and the political ideologies that fueled the repression.

Following the book launch, Enver Can, Chairman of the Ilham Tohti Initiative Movement, presented Mathias Bölinger with a plaque of appreciation for his valuable work and support for the Uyghur cause.

Attendees, including Uyghur activists, expressed their gratitude and presented flowers to both Bölinger and Markus Rinderspacher, the Uyghur-friendly deputy speaker of the parliament.

The event served as a crucial platform for raising awareness about China’s repressive policies and mass detention camps in East Turkestan. Bölinger’s book seeks to document the workings of the digital surveillance system and concentration camps in the region while drawing international attention to the human rights violations faced by the Uyghur people.