Adrian Zenz (born 1974)^[2] is a German anthropologist and sinologist known for his studies of the Xinjiang re-education camps. He is a lecturer in social research methodology at the Evangelical theological institution Akademie für Weltmission [de]^[3][4] and a senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.^[4][5] He is also known for his book, "Worthy to Escape", in which he predicts the fall of capitalism (identified as "Babylon") and consequent rise to power of the Antichrist. Zenz links other aspects of modern society, such as decriminalizing homosexuality and non-violent parenting to "power behind the Antichrist".^[6][7]

Education

Zenz received a Master's degree in development studies from the University of Auckland, followed by a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, with a doctoral thesis on minority education, job opportunities, and the ethnic identity of young Tibetans in western China.^[8]

Anthropology

Xinjiang

In 2019, Zenz studied the mass detention of Uyghurs in re-education camps in Xinjiang based on Chinese government documents and spreadsheets pointing toward factories with interned workers from the internment camps.^[5] In July 2019, Zenz published a study giving a speculative upper limit to the total number of people detained at any time since late 2016 in Xinjiang re-education camps at 1.5 million, based on extrapolations from food allowance subsidies figures.^[9] Newsweek Japan reported that the accounting figures of the camps that were used to base Zenz's initial estimate of 1 million, were sourced by Istiqlal, an Uyghur exile operated media organization based in Turkey who had said they obtained the numbers from a reliable local public security source.^[10][11] It was described by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as delivering solid evidence for the extent of the repression that had only been previously known through anecdotal evidence.^[12] In November 2019, Zenz estimated that the number of internment camps in Xinjiang had surpassed 1,000.^[13]

Zenz has also published research, using publicly available Chinese government documents on the Chinese internet, that showed that the Chinese government has spent tens of millions of dollars since 2016 on a birth control surgery program that includes cash incentives for sterilization procedures and concluded that birth control violations are punishable by internment in the Xinjiang re-education camps.^[14][15][16]

Zenz and his work on Xinjiang have been criticized by the Chinese government.^[17][18]

Tibet

Zenz is the author of 'Tibetanness' Under Threat?, a study of the modern Tibetan education system. In the book, he examines the career prospects of students who major in Tibetan-language studies and the notion that the greater market value of Chinese-language education threatens Tibetan ethnocultural survival.^[4][19]

A 2019 article in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described Zenz's research methods on Tibetans as being unconventional and arousing little interest in the professional world. The article stated that Zenz had analyzed job postings for security personnel in Tibet, compared them with data on self-immolation by Tibetans, and then used that data to draw his conclusions about the Chinese government's policies of repression.^[12]

In September 2020, Zenz authored a report that said that 500,000 Tibetans, mostly subsistence farmers and herders, were trained in the first seven months of 2020 in military-style training centres experts say are akin to labour camps.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Theology

Zenz is a born-again Christian, and has stated that he feels "led by God" in his research on Chinese minority groups.^[1]

Zenz co-authored a book in 2012 with his father-in-law, Marlon L. Sias, titled Worthy to Escape: Why All Believers Will Not Be Raptured Before the Tribulation, which re-examines biblical end-times.^[1][24]

Zenz advises doctoral students at the European School of Culture and Theology at the Akademie für Weltmission [de].^[3][4]

Selected works

• 2012. Worthy to Escape: Why All Believers Will Not Be Raptured Before the Tribulation, with Marlon L. Sias. Bloomington, IN: Westbow Press. Preview.
• 2013. 'Tibetanness' Under Threat?: Neo-Integrationism, Minority Education and Career Strategies in Qinghai, P.R. China. Brill.
• 2017 March 14. “Xinjiang’s Rapidly Evolving Security State,” with James Leibold. China Brief 17(4).
• 2017 September 21. “Chen Quanguo: The Strongman Behind Beijing’s Securitization Strategy in Tibet and Xinjiang,” with James Leibold. China Brief 17(12).
• 2018 May 15. “‘Thoroughly Reforming them Toward a Healthy Heart Attitude’ - China's Political Re-Education Campaign in Xinjiang.” Zenz via Academia.edu.
  • Condensed: “New Evidence for China’s Political Re-Education Campaign in Xinjiang.” China Brief 18(10). Jamestown Foundation.
• 2019 July 1. “Brainwashing, Police Guards and Coercive Internment: Evidence from Chinese Government Documents about the Nature and Extent of Xinjiang’s ‘Vocational Training Internment Camps’.” Journal of Political Risk 7(7).
• 2019 July 4. “Break Their Roots: Evidence for China’s Parent-Child Separation Campaign in Xinjiang.” Journal of Political Risk 7(7).
• 2019 Dec 10. “Beyond the Camps: Beijing’s Long-Term Scheme of Coercive Labor, Poverty Alleviation and Social Control in Xinjiang.” Journal of Political Risk 7(12). doi:10.31235/osf.io/8tsk2. Preprint.
• 2020 February 17. “The Karakax List: Dissecting the Anatomy of Beijing’s Internment Drive in Xinjiang.” Journal of Political Risk 8(2).
• 2020 June. “Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control: The CCP’s Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang.” The Jamestown Foundation.
• 2020 December 14. “Coercive Labor in Xinjiang: Labor Transfer and the Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities to Pick Cotton.” Center for Global Policy.

References

External links

• Adrian Zenz publications indexed by Google Scholar
• Adrian Zenz, Jamestown Foundation.
• Interview with NPR