(Image: Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory, US government, accessed 11/4 2021)
“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) government continues to carry out a campaign of repression in Xinjiang, targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups. Specific abuses include mass arbitrary detentions, severe physical and psychological abuse, forced labor and other labor abuses, oppressive surveillance used arbitrarily or unlawfully, religious persecution, political indoctrination, forced sterilization, and other infringements of the rights of members of those groups in Xinjiang.”
United States Government, Xinjiang-Supply-Chain-Business-Advisory, 7/1/2020.
What is the role of the First Research Institute in Xinjiang?
The First Research Institute is the organ that designs and implements Skynet in Xinjiang working with the Public Security Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an entity that is on the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN). According to the Treasury Department, such designation means: “Their assets are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.”
The First Research Institute announced Skynet in Xinjiang in a January 21, 2015 article posted on the Cyberspace Administration of China’s website with the headline: “First Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security Set Up Four Platforms; Build Anti-Terrorism Anti-Violence ‘SkyNet’”. The article states:
“The timely handling of the Shule incident indeed was benefited from the ‘Four Major Platforms’ of the Xinjiang Public Security’s Informatization, which the First Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security and Public Security Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region built over a period of three years – Video Information Integration Application Platform, Police Geographic Information Application Platform, National Security information Application Platform and Internet Service Platform.”
The Director of the First Research Institute, Qiu Baoli 仇保利, was previously Deputy Director of the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Construction Corps, an entity which was sanctioned by the U.S. government in October 2019:
“Specifically, these entities have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the XUAR.”
Federal Register, 10/9/2019