China destroying documents after leaks about Uighur Muslims

Crisis meetings began after the N.Y. Times last month published "The Xinjiang Papers," a cache of internal speeches by top leaders, including Xi Jinping.

• They continued after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published secret guidelines for operating detention centers, and instructions on how to use technology to target people.
• "The China Cables" was written by Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, now Axios' China reporter.

Xinjiang had mandated stricter controls on information before the news reports, then pressure rose, according to Uighurs outside Xinjiang.

• State offices were told to throw away computers, and put camp information in databases disconnected from the internet, in restricted-access rooms.
• Some university teachers were ordered to clean out sensitive data on their computers, phones and cloud storage, and delete work-related social media groups.

In some cases, the state appears to be confiscating evidence of detentions.

• One Uighur, who had been detained in Xinjiang years before, said his ex-wife called him two weeks ago and begged him to send his release papers to her.
• She said eight officers had come to her home to search for the papers, and threatened she'd be jailed for life if she couldn't produce them.

Go deeper:

• Scoop: China tried to get World Bank to fund surveillance in Xinjiang
• China's move on face-recognition standards
• Report: Leaked files show how mass detention of Uighurs was organized