Defence Diaries: PLA's Grip On Xinjiang - Inside China's Camps, Surveillance, And Minority Repression Opinion

New Delhi: China's far-western Xinjiang region today bears a resemblance to a garrison state, where the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has become the backbone of governance. What was once a civilian challenge of managing ethnic diversity has been transformed under Xi Jinping into a militarized project of assimilation and control, with the PLA and its affiliated forces operating at the heart of Beijing's crackdown on Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities.

Military Infrastructure and Direct Oversight

Xinjiang's security is not left to provincial bureaucrats. The Xinjiang Military District reports directly to the Central Military Commission (CMC), bypassing the usual chain of theatre commands. This arrangement, otherwise found only in Tibet and Beijing, signals how seriously the Communist Party views the region's“restive” character.

Within this setup, the southern Xinjiang sub-district is tasked with border management and, tellingly, houses most of the sprawling detention facilities. Such command arrangements leave no doubt that Xinjiang is treated less as a province and more as a military frontier.

Chen Quanguo and the 'Xinjiang Model'

The turning point came in 2016 with the appointment of Chen Quanguo as the party secretary of Xinjiang. A former PLA officer, Chen had earlier deployed a heavy-handed grid policing system in Tibet. In Xinjiang, he took it several notches higher.

Within months, his administration advertised over 90,000 new police and security jobs and set up nearly 7,500“convenience police stations” across towns and villages.

For residents, this network meant constant checks, surveillance, and intimidation. For Beijing, it created a paramilitary occupation force with a presence on nearly every street corner.

Detention Camps Run Like Military Prisons

The Xinjiang Police Files -- internal documents leaked to international media -- lifted the lid on what Beijing calls“vocational training centres.”

Facilities such as the Shufu County camp, which held 3,700 detainees guarded by 366 armed police, are run with watchtowers, fortified gates, and military-style drills.

One chilling directive from these files laid down that camps must“teach like a school, be managed like the military, and be defended like a prison.”

Transfers involve shackling, hooding, and armed escorts. Accounts from former Chinese police officers confirm detainees were routinely beaten into submission during interrogations.

Surveillance as Digital Occupation

Technology is the other arm of the crackdown. The Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP) – a data-driven surveillance system originally designed for external security – is now used to monitor every resident in the Xinjiang region.

The platform hoovers up information on everything from DNA samples to vehicle movements. It flags people for detention for reasons as trivial as using encrypted messaging apps or“not socializing with neighbours.”

Analysts say IJOP functions like a“digital occupation force,” where an algorithm can decide who should be taken away.

Xi Jinping's Military-Centric Control

None of this would be possible without Xi Jinping's iron grip over the PLA.

Analysts argue that not even Mao Zedong wielded such personal command over China's military. The 2016 reforms that placed the People's Armed Police solely under the CMC removed all civilian oversight.

This means that forces tasked with quelling“internal unrest” now answer only to the top military leadership, enabling the rapid deployment of troops and resources against minority populations without bureaucratic friction. It is this centralization that has allowed Beijing to execute its sweeping campaign in Xinjiang.

A Template of Authoritarian Control

Xinjiang's militarization is more than a regional policy -- it is a test-bed.

Chen's“model” of tight surveillance, detention, and military-backed assimilation has already been extended to Tibet. Experts fear that its combination of high-tech tools with boots on the ground could become a template for authoritarian regimes elsewhere.

Human Rights Watch has described the system as“algorithms of repression.” The phrase captures how military structures, paramilitary policing, and digital surveillance have been fused into one comprehensive apparatus of control.

Conclusion

Xinjiang reveals how far Beijing has gone in weaponizing its military to manage domestic populations. From PLA-directed command structures to police stations that resemble outposts, from prison-like camps to AI-powered surveillance, the region has been transformed into one of the most militarized civilian zones in the world.

For China's minorities, it has meant the loss of cultural freedom and basic human dignity.

For the world, Xinjiang serves as a warning of how 21st-century authoritarianism blends traditional force with cutting-edge technology to impose total control.

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