Tag: Haaretz

Bookmarked A million people are jailed at China’s gulags. I managed to escape. Here’s what really goes on inside (haaretz.com)

Sauytbay had to teach the prisoners – who were Uyghur or Kazakh speakers – Chinese and Communist Party propaganda songs. She was with them throughout the day. The daily routine began at 6 A.M. Chinese instruction took place after a paltry breakfast, followed by repetition and rote learning. There were specified hours for learning propaganda songs and reciting slogans from posters: “I love China,” “Thank you to the Communist Party,” “I am Chinese” and “I love Xi Jinping” – China’s president.

David Stavrou paints a picture of life inside of a Xinjiang ‘reeducation’ camp. This is based on a testimony provided by Sayragul Sauytbay, a teacher who escaped from China and was granted asylum in Sweden. Some of the harrowing aspects to come out of the account were the living conditions, medical trials and rape of those incarcerated.

The Chinese Embassy denied these accounts and instead argued that Sauytbay was suspected of credit fraud.

Asked to respond to Sayragul Sauytbay’s description of her experience, the Chinese Embassy in Sweden wrote to Haaretz that her account is “total lies and malicious smear attacks against China.” Sauytbay, it claimed, “never worked in any vocational education and training center in Xinjiang, and has never been detained before leaving China” – which she did illegally, it added. Furthermore, “Sayragul Sauytbay is suspected of credit fraud in China with unpaid debts [of] about 400,000 RMB” (approximately $46,000).

However, as China has closed the region off and implemented a system of surveillance, it therefore is difficult to actually prove or disprove any sort of testimony, without it simply being discredited by the state.