A Chinese national who secretly filmed detention facilities in China’s Xinjiang region and publicized the footage has been granted asylum in the United States after an immigration judge found he had a “well-founded fear” of persecution if returned to China.
Guan Heng, 38, documented what he described as mass detention sites in the northwestern region in 2020. Human rights groups say more than one million ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have been detained there against their will.
Guan entered the United States illegally in 2021 and later applied for asylum. He was detained in August during a broad deportation push by the Trump administration. Plans to deport him to Uganda were dropped in December after his case drew public attention.
During a hearing Wednesday, Guan rejected suggestions that he filmed the facilities to bolster an asylum claim. “I sympathised with the Uyghurs who were persecuted,” he said via video link from a U.S. detention facility.
After leaving China, Guan traveled through Hong Kong, Ecuador and the Bahamas before arriving in Florida. He later published much of the footage on YouTube, showing guarded compounds he described as “concentration camps.”
Several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands, have accused China of crimes against humanity and possibly genocide in Xinjiang. China denies the allegations, saying the facilities are vocational centers aimed at preventing extremism.
The judge said Guan had demonstrated a credible fear of retaliation, noting that Chinese authorities had already questioned his family, and ruled he met the legal standard for asylum.
The Department of Homeland Security has 30 days to appeal the decision.
