U.S. Universities Criticized For Work With Chinese Security Firm Linked To Xinjiang Camps

A new investigative report by Reuters revealed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at least one other U.S. university have research partnerships with a Chinese firm who has ties with the expansive security system created in China's Xinjiang region on Wednesday. Beijing has been leading an intense campaign against the minority Uighurs in the autonomous region, with the United Nations estimating up to one million currently being held in detention facilities. Reporters uncovered two documents which revealed iFlytek, an artificial intelligence company, was the only supplier of 25 "voiceprint" collection systems for police in Kashgar, a major city in Xinjiang, during 2016. Maya Wang, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said she's heard of people in Xinjiang last May being asked to have their voice recorded using the software, but iFlytek declined to comment on whether that was its technology. A May 2017 blog post also revealed another iFlytek subsidiary signed a "strategic cooperation framework agreement" with Xinjiang's prison administration bureau.