The study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a Canberra-based think tank, contradicts China's claims that it has wound down its mass internment campaign in the region.

Using satellite imagery, researchers mapped out the large network of new internment camps erected since 2017 in Xinjiang, including at least 14 facilities still under construction.

China has interned an estimated 1 million Uighurs, Kazakhs, Huis and other predominantly Muslim minorities in camps over the past four years, according to rights groups, researchers and survivors.

Beijing has described the camps as vocational training centres intended to prevent terrorism and separatism.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Thursday dismissed the ASPI study and called the Australian think tank "the vanguard of anti-China forces."

Last December, Xinjiang Governor Shohrat Zakir said all Xinjiang trainees had "graduated" and found jobs.

But rights activists claim authorities are funnelling people into factories, where they are subjected to forced labour. China rejects the accusation.

China's policies in Xinjiang have been met with mounting international criticism. There have been a number of calls for the United Nations to investigate.

Australian Associated Press