How Russia is grooming Ukraine’s children to fight for it: ‘I understood it wasn’t just play’; The Guardian, September 10, 2025

Liz Cookman, The Guardian; How Russia is grooming Ukraine’s children to fight for it: ‘I understood it wasn’t just play’

"Sonya spent a month at the Avangard camp, which has several other branches across Russia, and had sanctions imposed on it by the UK in November for its role in the forced deportation and brainwashing of Ukrainian children. She says she and other children faced a programme of activities that included being taught to dig trenches and rig them with booby traps and trip wires, load machine guns, take part in military-style formations and carry other children on their backs to simulate medical evacuations.

Similar to Soviet-era youth camps, these centres have escalated in number since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Critics say they are used to indoctrinate children to prepare them for future service in the Russian military.

Now large numbers of children from occupied regions of Ukraine are reportedly being sent alongside the young Russians. The Kremlin portrays these facilities as physical and cultural learning opportunities for children."

Data leak reveals how China 'brainwashes' Uighurs in prison camps; BBC, November 24, 2019

BBC; Data leak reveals how China 'brainwashes' Uighurs in prison camps

"The leaked Chinese government documents, which the ICIJ have labelled "The China Cables", include a nine-page memo sent out in 2017 by Zhu Hailun, then deputy-secretary of Xinjiang's Communist Party and the region's top security official, to those who run the camps...

The memo includes orders to:

• "Never allow escapes"
• "Increase discipline and punishment of behavioural violations"
• "Promote repentance and confession"
• "Make remedial Mandarin studies the top priority"
• "Encourage students to truly transform"
• "[Ensure] full video surveillance coverage of dormitories and classrooms free of blind spots"

The documents reveal how every aspect of a detainee's life is monitored and controlled: "The students should have a fixed bed position, fixed queue position, fixed classroom seat, and fixed station during skills work, and it is strictly forbidden for this to be changed.

"Implement behavioural norms and discipline requirements for getting up, roll call, washing, going to the toilet, organising and housekeeping, eating, studying, sleeping, closing the door and so forth."...

The leaked documents also reveal how the Chinese government uses mass surveillance and a predictive-policing programme that analyses personal data."

China got rid of one of the most oppressive practices of the Mao era. Now it’s coming back.; The Washington Post, December 18, 2018

Editorial Board, The Washington Post; China got rid of one of the most oppressive practices of the Mao era. Now it’s coming back.

"This has become one of the world’s most urgent human rights crises. Congress should pass the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act, which has bipartisan sponsorship in both chambers. In the House this includes Reps. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) and Thomas Suozzi (D-N.Y.), as well as the likely next speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The bill would create a U.S. special coordinator for Xinjiang to respond to the crisis and pave the way for applying Global Magnitsky Act sanctions on specific Chinese officials. It would increase vigilance against commerce that could abet the camp system. The Associated Press has found sportswear from one Xinjiang compound headed for Western markets. President Trump has been way too silent about the Xinjiang repression, although other administration officials have spoken out.

“Never again,” the vow to avoid another genocide, has meaning only if backed by action. China must hear loud and clear that the world will not stand by as Beijing attempts to destroy a people through forced labor and brainwashing."