A Chinese national who filmed detention facilities in Xinjiang at great personal risk now faces removal from the U.S., drawing widespread calls for his protection from members of Congress, human rights organizations and the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists his evidence helped support.
About Guan and his efforts: Immigration officials detained Heng Guan, 38, in August during a raid on his upstate New York residence that initially targeted his roommate. His documentation work began in October 2020, when he drove across Xinjiang filming sites a BuzzFeed report had identified through satellite analysis as likely detention centers. With a telephoto camera, he captured facilities featuring guard towers, high walls and barbed wire, including one displaying the slogan “reform through labor, reform through culture.”
After a three-day expedition, Guan fled China in 2021 via Ecuador, then made a 23-hour solo voyage in an inflatable boat from the Bahamas to Florida. His 19-minute video, which was released in October 2021, provided rare ground-level confirmation of what satellite imagery had revealed about China’s mass detention system.
What this means: Guan’s case highlights the irony that someone whose evidence informed U.S. sanctions policy now faces expulsion under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In one of its final acts, the first Trump administration even determined that China committed genocide against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang. Beijing’s...
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