As Ukraine was to Russia, Xinjiang was now to China—an incubator for every new piece of surveillance technology. Uighurs were forced to download compulsory spyware that monitored their calls and messages. Surveillance cameras now hung from every doorway, shop, mosque, and street in Xinjiang. Facial recognition algorithms had been trained to identify Uighurs by their unique facial features. And when they snagged one, China’s minders inspected every pixel of the footage, sniffing for any whiff of dissent.
