Uyghur Inequity in Chinese Borders

Effectively illustrate the nature of the subject of inequity with the treatment of Uyghur minority peoples in the geopolitical country of China by its government, focused in the region called East Turkistan/Turkestan by its Uyghur peoples and which is also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China by the government and much of the outside world simply as Xinjiang. Attempt to do so in a way which lets data tell the story, and without adding political or ideological rhetoric.

See the visualization at data-design-dimension.github.io/Uyghur-inequity-in-Chinese-borders/.

Visualization Brief

Written in the planning of this visualization, to direct decision making throughout execution for its effectiveness.

1. Goals/Intent: Illustrate how religion factors into the surveillance and data collection by China's officials of the residents living in its recognized Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Calculate and show exactly to what extent religion directly is used in its process of identifying suspicious persons. An example of potential application is for HRW to incorporate this or a similar visualization into a report such as its 2019 China’s Algorithms of Repression, Human Rights Watch which was the source of data used in these graphs.

2. Primary Audience: To Concerned Governments (international and outside of China), I direct this visualization with the aim to encourage them to publicly name, along with existing individuals, any and all businesses or technology companies along with and as part of export control lists or to the extent there are any assets under control outside of China that may be freezed by international parties, whether owned in whole or in part publicly or by the 'state' of China,

   1. This is informed by HRW as it cited Chinese companies as one of its Recommendations to Concerned Governments.
   2. I would have liked to focus on the technology companies and the extent to which technology acts amplify this inequitable surveillance and data collection on the basis of religion, however because the company that built this app and its parent corporation are both solely 100% owned by the government of China, PRC, it seems like a mute point to focus on the complicity of technology companies and their responsibility to prevent human rights abuses as separate from the government or other purchasers or users of its technology.

3. Approach: Supplement the HRW written report and screenshots of the IJOP app with visual representations of the data being collected in the context of religion.

   1. Construct a data table from the reported app questions and religions list of choides of religions it included in its data collection.
   2. Provide clear representation of app content as data rather than solely reporting it in the form of text which risks it being interpreted as prose, leaving facts to be watered down as the audience forms its picture of the information presented.
   3. Plainly compare among those religions listed as choices, how many of the 36 "Person Types" the Chinese officials are paying special attention to through the app data collection throughout East Turkistan/Xinjiang are directly associated with each religion and/or its known practices.
   4. Disregard any indirect or implied connection to religion for this fact based purpose purpose, such as implication in the riots of Urumqi even though that is generally known to have been Uyghur peoples who were involved and who are majority practicing of Islamic religion.