‘LIKE RATS’

China Subjected Uighurs to Cruel Tests of Facial Recognition Systems: Report

A software engineer said Uighurs would be locked in chairs in police stations while cameras were trained on them.

The Chinese government subjected members of its Muslim Uighur minority to dehumanizing tests to develop a facial recognition software that graphs a target’s emotions. A software engineer told the BBC, “The Chinese government use Uighurs as test subjects for various experiments just like rats are used in laboratories.” The engineer said subjects were locked into “restraint chairs” in police stations throughout the Xinjiang province where a camera would analyze their face and produce a pie chart graphing their emotions. A red piece of the circle would indicate a negative, anxious state, according to the BBC. The software engineer said the program was intended for “pre-judgement without any credible evidence.” Xinjiang is home to the Chinese government’s “re-education centers,” where authorities have detained more than a million members of the minority group without evidence, prompting international outcry from human rights groups and governments.