Recent times reveal that China has been detaining numerous Muslims in “re-education” camps, but has now been said to have been released.

The camps are centered around the Xinjiang region, and is said to have more than one million Muslims inside. Any who have been detained are to study Mandarin, Chinese law, vocational skills, etc. After knowledge of “re-education” camps surfaced, China slowly started to receive backlash for what was happening in their country. 

In an effort to stop China from continuing, the House of Representatives passed the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act on December 3, which would impose sanctions on anyone alleged to be responsible for the camps in Xinjiang. The Senate, and President Donald Trump would still need to pass the bill for it to come into effect. In response, Chinese officials said that it is stirring up discord within their communities and slandering their efforts for de-radicalization.

According to the Associated Press, officials say that there isn’t more than one million attending the camps at Xinjiang.

Xu Hairong, the Communist Party chief of Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, said that “The so-called reports by The New York Times, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other foreign media organizations are purely malicious attempts to smear and discredit Xinjiang’s vocational education centers and its counter-terrorism and de-radicalization efforts. China’s Xinjiang policy is transparent, righteous, and consistent.”

On December 7, China has announced that all Muslims inside of their camps have “graduated,” although they didn’t state whether or not they would resume having their own lives. According to the BBC, several inmates that were recently released over the past few months, met with restrictions in some way, such as house arrest. Along with that, no other evidence has been brought forth to support this claim as of yet.