NEW YORK — A U.S. immigration judge has granted asylum to Guan Heng, a Chinese national who secretly documented alleged abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, after finding he has a “well founded fear” of persecution if returned to China.
Guan, 38, drew attention in 2020 after covertly filming facilities in Xinjiang that rights advocates and researchers say formed part of a vast system of mass detention targeting Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities. Human rights reporting has long estimated that more than one million people were arbitrarily detained in the region, an allegation Beijing denies, describing its programs as vocational training and counter-extremism measures.
According to accounts of his journey cited by rights groups and U.S. media reporting, Guan left China in 2021, moved through Hong Kong and Latin America, then reached Florida by boat from the Bahamas before applying for asylum. He later published most of his Xinjiang footage online, saying he wanted to expose what he described as “concentration camps.”
His case became a flashpoint in late 2025 after he was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in August during an operation in upstate New York. Press freedom groups said he was detained despite having a pending asylum claim, warning that removing him could enable “transnational repression” if he was routed through a third country and ultimately returned to China.
U.S. authorities initially pursued plans to deport Guan to Uganda, but dropped that option in December following public outcry and advocacy by human rights activists and lawmakers, according to reporting at the time.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Guan testified by video link from a U.S. correctional facility and rejected suggestions that he filmed Xinjiang sites to manufacture an asylum claim. “I sympathised with the Uyghurs who were persecuted,” he said, according to Associated Press reporting carried by U.S. outlets.
The asylum grant is expected to strengthen efforts by his legal team and supporters to secure his release from detention, while also signalling heightened U.S. scrutiny of cases involving whistleblowers and documentarians who say they face retaliation from Beijing.
