The Xinjiang Victims Database is a database which attempts to record all currently known individuals who are detained in Xinjiang internment camps in China. The database has documented over 16,000 victims. It was founded by Gene Bunin, who started the database in September 2018.
The database contains the names and biographical details of people who are thought to be detained in the camps. Many of the profiles also contain personal testimonies by the families and friends of the detainees.
Origin
Gene Bunin is a Russian-American linguistic researcher, who lived in Xinjiang until 2018, when Chinese police forced him to leave. He created the database to “have one place" to store detailed information of people interred in prison camps or disappeared after only "limited attempts" had been made to identify detainees.
Controversy
In January 2023, SCMP reported that two of the alleged police officers whose names and likenesses were listed in the database bore strong resemblances to Hong Kong actors Andy Lau Tak-wah and Chow Yun-fat. After it drew attention on social media and after it was mocked by Chinese state media, the Xinjiang Victims Database later responded and it also claimed that the data was sourced from "the file cache of a Urumqi database" obtained by the US news organisation, The Intercept, which had included a photo of Andy Lau, and added that some of the photos of the police officers “aren’t always of themselves”. The gallery had also contained a cartoon portrait, which aroused suspicion of the gallery's authenticity.