Syrian Families' Evacuations Grow More Desperate; Leaked Records Reveal "Future Of Authoritarianism"; Over 780 Million People Under Travel Restrictions In China
GORANI: Over the past several years, China says it's been trying to root out Islamist extremism and terrorism in the Western Region of Xinjiang through what it calls a massive vocational training program. But critics and survivors say what it's actually doing is conducting a mass internment policy targeting members of the country's Uyghur Muslim minority. CNN's Ivan Watson obtained rare leaked documents from inside</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Growing a long beard, making an international phone call, having a passport, these are all reasons that can land you in what U.S. officials call concentration camps in China. Chilling revelations detailed in what appears to be a Chinese government surveillance report on its citizens leaked from Xinjiang. That's a region in Western China, where a mass internment policy has forced up to two million Muslims, mostly from the country's ethnic Uyghur minority into detention.</s>WATSON (on-camera): The documents are spreadsheets of data on more than 300 families living in one neighborhood of</s>WATSON (voice-over): The authors believed to be Chinese government officials then decide whether to keep individuals in what the Chinese government calls vocational training centers. Beijing wants the world to believe this mass job training program is rooting out violent extremism. But several survivors tell CNN the reality is these camps were crowded prison-like facilities where inmates were subjected to torture. Due to China's crackdown and heavy curtain of censorship, independently confirming anything in Xinjiang is incredibly difficult.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are you here? You tell me. Why are you here? On a recent visit to the region, Chinese security forces harassed and blocked CNN Matt Rivers from visiting the internment camps. However, a CNN investigation tracked down Uyghurs living in exile, who verified the identities of at least eight of the families profiled in the leaked report. The investigation takes us to Istanbul, Turkey. Here, I meet Rozinsa Mamattohti, a mother of three from Xinjiang whose name is on the document.</s>ROZINSA MAMATTOHTI, RELATIVE OF DETAINEE (through translator): Rozinsa Mamattohti.</s>WATSON (on-camera): Rozinsa Mamattohti, that is you, that's your name.</s>WATSON (voice-over): Her name appeared under case number 358, which also revealed that her younger sister, Patem, was sent to a camp in March of 2018 for supposedly violating China's family planning policy that is having too many children.</s>MAMATTOHTI (through translator): When I saw the document and learned that my younger sister was in prison for the past two years, I couldn't sleep or eat for days.</s>WATSON: Rozinsa says this is the first information she's had about her family in Xinjiang since 2016. Many Uyghurs living overseas say communication with their family back home was completely cut off when China intensified its crackdown in Xinjiang. But some Uyghurs are risking their lives to expose this sensitive information.</s>WATSON (on-camera): This is the first time you're speaking publicly about these documents. Yes, this is the first time.</s>WATSON (voice-over): Tahirjan Anwar is a Uyghur activist living in exile in the Netherlands. Last summer, he received this trove of documents from a source in Xinjiang he won't identify for their safety.</s>TAHIRJAN ANWAR, UYGHUR ACTIVIST: That was my birthday. And I got the attachment document. I'm very, very surprised.</s>WATSON: And it is Anwar, along with a patchwork of other Uyghurs living in exile who are sharing this information with the outside world.</s>ZENZ: This document is like a microcosm of what's happening all over Xinjiang.</s>WATSON: Adrian Zenz is a U.S. based academic who's been studying what he is convinced are internal Chinese government documents.</s>ZENZ: This is the future of authoritarianism. This is the future of changing populations who don't agree with the main regime in terms of ideology, spirituality, political identity or other criteria.</s>WATSON: CNN's data analysis reveals among at least 484 people sent to camps, five were detained because they communicated with people overseas. Twenty-five were detained for holding a passport without visiting a foreign country. And the most 114 people were labeled a threat for simply having too many children.</s>WATSON (on-camera): Those Uyghurs were sent to four different camps, all apparently located within the same community. Using other open source Chinese government documents, we were able to find the locations of the four facilities, including the number two Training Center, located near the train</s>WATSON (on-camera): Why are you showing your face to the outside world?</s>MAMATTOHTI (through translator): Because I love and miss my parents and my family so much. Because I want to know what's happened to them. I want to know if they are alive and well. But if they are dead, I need to know that as well.</s>WATSON (voice-over): CNN reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Xinjiang regional government in writing with detailed questions, but Chinese officials did not respond. In the past, Beijing has strenuously denied allegations of mistreatment and arbitrary detention.</s>WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): The so-called concentration camps with one million people are 100 percent rumors. It is completely fake news.</s>WATSON: As for Tahirjan Anwar, he hopes that sharing these documents will force Beijing to ease its crackdown in Xinjiang and lead to information about his own missing loved ones.</s>ANWAR: This is my father. He is now in the jail. I don't know what exactly crime of him. Chinese government, let's free my father immediately. And let's free all Uyghurs immediately.</s>WATSON: Ivan Watson, CNN.</s>GORANI: Well, you can read more about the crackdown in Xinjiang. See a redacted Chinese government PDF document and maps showing these secret of detention facilities. That's on our website, cnn.com. Almost 800 million people are living under travel restrictions in China and an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. That's almost half the entire Chinese population. Now travel is limited, the most Hubei Province that's ground zero in the outbreak, but it's also leaving the streets of major cities across the country desolate. It just looks like some sort of movie scene where sort of humanity has melted away. David Culver reports from Shanghai where life is anything but normal there.</s>DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside Beijing South railway station passengers sporting a range of plastic protective attire, this man dressed in a raincoat, hair net, and goggles. Another woman donning a plastic veil of sorts, purple latex gloves as she thumbs through her phone determined to keep from contracting the novel coronavirus. Everyone abiding by the requirement to wear a mask. Security patrols the terminal in hazmat suits, as one worker sprays a liquid bleach like substance around the feet of travelers. This is what train travel has become in China. Arriving in Shanghai, passengers file through a round of temperature checks. Then using smartphones, you are required to register your health and travel history. Only then can you enter the city. There we go. The normally vibrant financial hub subdued. We stroll down the popular Nanjing Road, most stores closed. The shops that were open, eager for business. To walk in, you go through what's become a standard temperature reading. Inside, the look on some of the employees' faces suggested they are desperate for a return to normalcy.</s>CULVER (on camera): We are in the heart of Shanghai's financial district and just look how slowly things are moving. There's hardly any traffic at what is normally a very busy circle. And as far as the lunch time rush, well we've seen maybe a few folks are out and about. But this certainly does not feel like a city coming back to life. Is that unusual?</s>YENA LEI, WORKER IN FINANCE: No.</s>CULVER (voice-over): Yena Lei tells us this elevated pedestrian plaza is normally packed, mostly with tourists trying to snap a skyline photo. As someone who works in finance, Yena says this strange silence will come at a cost.</s>CULVER (on camera): Do you think that it's going to have a long impact though economically?</s>LEI: I think that overall the impact will be from April, May.</s>CULVER: Do you feel nervous?</s>LEI: A little but not too much. Just a reminder -- even my family is take care because out of control, out of your own control. China's State Council had estimated at some 160 million people would be traveling in what was a post extended Lunar New Year holiday. However, as we made our way here from Beijing to Shanghai, it seems as though those numbers may not come to fruition, at least walking around here, you also get the feel that this city is not yet ready to restart. David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.</s>GORANI: Well, an armed robbery in Hong Kong has highlighted the desperation that this outbreak is causing. Police have arrested two men for allegedly stealing 600 rolls of toilet paper and they're looking for third suspect. It was a three-man job, it appears. Staples like toilet paper are in short supply. Earlier this month, residents in Hong Kong cleared the shelves of supermarkets as rumors spread that supply chains from China would be cut and that is one of the products that people are worried about running out of. Still to come tonight. Next stop Nevada, U.S. Democrats are taking aim at each other at Donald Trump and at a candidate who isn't even running in this state. We'll be right back.