China has built the most sophisticated system of total population control in human history. The testing ground for this experiment has been Xinjiang — a region in the northwest of the country where Turkic-speaking Uyghurs live. Digital technologies have given the state unprecedented capabilities to monitor and punish: from ubiquitous surveillance cameras with facial recognition to internet monitoring and algorithms that supposedly can predict future crimes. Say or do something that displeases the authorities — and you might be sent to a camp or disappear without a trace. American journalist Jeffrey Kahn visited Xinjiang and spoke with dozens of Uyghur refugees — researchers, activists, and ordinary people who managed to escape the police state. This book is a unique testimony about life inside a dystopia and a powerful warning about how authoritarian regimes, in alliance with technology corporations, threaten our freedom.