When Chinese officials claimed in February 2018 that reeducation camps for Uighurs in Xinjiang did not exist, German researcher Adrian Zenz decided to prove them wrong. He started digging through Chinese government data on the internet—construction bids, hiring ads, local budgets—and found evidence that the government had built massive reeducation camps that held 1 million Uighurs. Zenz, a Christian, views his research as a way to serve the voiceless, including Uighurs who see China eradicating their language and culture. Here are edited excerpts of our interview.

Three big stories in this week’s China news: The founder of a Chinese human rights website is given a 12-year prison sentence. Pro-Beijing students in New Zealand and Australia violently clash with fellow students supporting Hong Kong freedoms. The Chinese government claims it has set free most Uighurs, who it says are now “living very happy lives.”

Dai Ying, a middle-aged Chinese woman, has fake front teeth. She says she lost her real ones when guards at a Chinese prison forced her to end a hunger strike by ramming a screwdriver between her clenched teeth. Her fingers are also deformed. She says that’s because the guards forced her and other prisoners to make leather shoes each day from 7:30 a.m. to midnight. She’s also blind in her left eye, a result of guards repeatedly shocking her with electric prods.

Activists and rights groups question whether China has released most of the Uighur and other Muslim minorities held in so-called reeducation camps in the Xinjiang region. Shohrat Zakir, the region’s Uighur governor, defended the centers Wednesday as a “pioneering” approach to counterterrorism. “Most of the graduates from the vocational training centers have been reintegrated into society,” he said.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday in Washington concluded its second annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom by announcing plans to create the International Religious Freedom Alliance. The three-day event featured nearly 900 religious leaders and activists from more than 100 countries and focused on joint efforts to end religious persecution. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the alliance will be the first international body to specifically combat religious persecution.

A recent tribunal report on organ harvesting reveals the devastating torture both Falun Gong practitioners and minority Uighurs face in detention inside China.

Chinese authorities on Tuesday released Jiang Rong, wife of Pastor Wang Yi, on bail six months after the widespread arrests of leaders and members of Early Rain Covenant Church. Authorities in Chengdu launched a crackdown on Early Rain on Dec. 9, 2018, swarming apartment complexes, ransacking homes, and forcing members to sign a document renouncing the church.