Despite Chinese officials’ repeated claim that internment camps filled mostly with ethnic Uighurs are vocational education centers, Uighur Muslims who survived the camps say that inmates were beaten and killed.
Since April 2017, up to 2 million members of China’s predominantly Muslim minority Uighur ethnic group have been imprisoned in camps in northwest China’s Xinjiang province. Chinese officials have argued the camps are necessary for de-radicalizing extremists and compared them to counterterrorism measures taken by the United States. But two survivors, who were connected to the Washington Examiner via human rights groups, said they were arrested for no obvious reason and tortured.
Zumrat Dawut, 37, was one of those survivors. Police interrogated Dawut in March 2018 in a dark, underground room, asking her why records showed she had contact with foreign phone numbers. After explaining that her husband, who is Pakistani, ran an import-export business with foreign clients, the police questioned her about his faith.
Dawut told the Washington Examiner that the police wanted to know if he taught the Quran, Islam’s sacred text, or prayer in their home. They then asked if he prayed at the nearby mosque, although they knew the answer because anyone attending mosque had to scan their identification card. Frightened by the situation, Dawut denied he went to the mosque, prompting the police to dismiss her as a liar and bring her to a camp.
At the camp, Dawut was forced to change into a prison uniform in front of two men before being taken to a room with almost 40 detainees. She said most of the people there were detained because they were found with religious content or had contact with people in other countries. One woman who had recently given birth was brought to the camp because her mother- and father-in-law went to Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage.
Dawut encountered one woman who was diabetic and could not receive insulin in the camp. Seeing her pain, Dawut shared some of the bread provided to her. Guards then beat Dawut with rubber batons, prompting her to cry out to Allah, or God, for help.
“Call your God again, let him save you from my hand,” the guards told her repeatedly.
Dawut saw others abused by the guards and said one woman told her guards had beaten her while naked because she struggled to learn Chinese.
In addition to being taught Chinese, prisoners were given learning materials that said Islam was not a religion in China, but rather a poison to the state. During lessons, detainees were handcuffed and had their legs shackled.
Dawut added that hygiene in the camps was poor, and she never showered during her two months in the camp. Every day, prisoners were forced to swallow a pill, which Dawut said diminished their feelings of worry or longings to be reunited with loved ones. Prior to meals, they gave thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Similar horrors were recounted by Mihrigul Tursun, age 29, who spent close to a year in detention. After giving birth to triplets in Egypt in 2015, Tursun moved back to China, where she was questioned by authorities about why she left China. She was separated from her newborns and brought into custody.
When Tursun was temporarily brought to her children a few months later, she found her oldest son in poor health for unclear reasons, and he died soon after they reunited. She also noticed scars around the neck of her other two children, where doctors had mysteriously decided to operate on them. In 2017, she was detained again and tortured.
Tursun told the Washington Examiner she endured several days of beatings and electrocution. Her torturers mocked her when she called to Allah.
“Then they ask me, ‘Where is your God? You say God, where is your God? Tell him, if he is stronger than me, to help you,’” said Tursun.
“Your god is Xi Jinping,” the guards told her.
After spending more time in detention, Tursun’s health deteriorated, and she woke up one day in a mental hospital. Her father cared for her at home before she was again detained around the start of 2018.
Tursun went months without showering or washing her face. She also witnessed nine women die and noted that others were taken for questioning and did not return.
The situation in Xinjiang has received an increasing amount of attention from the U.S. including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has accused China of trying to “erase its own citizens.” A Chinese Foreign Ministry representative labeled Pompeo’s comments “pure slanders in total disregard of facts.”
During the United Nations’ General Assembly meeting last month, the U.S. hosted an event on the situation in Xinjiang province, angering Chinese officials. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the U.S. has “repeatedly smeared and slandered China’s policy toward Xinjiang,” and called the U.N. event a “mistake.”
Earlier this week, the Trump administration added almost 30 Chinese organizations implicated in the targeting of Uighurs to a blacklist that prevents them from purchasing American products. The organizations include companies specializing in video surveillance and artificial intelligence.
Chinese authorities have employed technology to establish a police state in Xinjiang, using facial recognition technology to surveil Uighurs. Chinese researchers are also trying to create a DNA database of Chinese citizens, and residents of Xinjiang from age 12 to 65 must have their blood samples, iris images, voice recordings, and fingerprints collected. Chinese technology companies are also working on algorithms to track suspicious behavior among ethnic and religious minorities.
The crackdown has led to the Xinjiang region being compared to “something that resembles a massive internment camp.” As of November 2018, the BBC found up to 44 high-security buildings had been built in the province in recent years. China is also reportedly taking Muslim children away from their families and sending them to boarding schools to separate them from their roots.
In addition to the restrictions on Chinese organizations, the Trump administration on Tuesday imposed visa restrictions on Chinese government officials thought to be responsible for the persecution of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
“The United States calls on the People’s Republic of China to immediately end its campaign of repression in Xinjiang, release all those arbitrarily detained, and cease efforts to coerce members of Chinese Muslim minority groups residing abroad to return to China to face an uncertain fate,” said Pompeo on Tuesday.
The Washington Examiner asked the State Department for comment on the situation in Xinjiang and whether it is intending to place additional pressure on China but did not receive a response.
