07-24-2018, 10:28 PM
*** 25-Jul-18 World View -- Defector in Kazakhstan reveals explosive information about China's 'reeducation centers'
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Defector in Kazakhstan reveals explosive information about China's 'reeducation centers'
****
![[Image: g180724b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g180724b.jpg)
Sayragul Sauytbay, enclosed in a glass cage in courtroom, awaiting trial (AFP)
A defector from China, who is on trial in Kazakhstan for breaking the
law by crossing the border from China, has revealed explosive
information about ethnic Kazakhs in China being forced into
"reeducation centers."
This information is explosive for three reasons.
First, China has always denied the existence of "reeducation centers,"
although there have been plenty testimonies and official documents
proving their existence. Since 2016, Chinese authorities in the have
ensnared tens or hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Xinjiang
province, even foreign citizens, into mass internment camps. The
program aims to rewire detainees' thinking and reshape their
identities. Chinese officials say ideological changes are needed to
fight Islamic extremism.
Second, the testimony revealed that China is forcing thousands of
ethnic Kazakhs into these reeducation centers. This is polarizing the
Kazakh public against China at a time when the Kazakh government is
trying to convince China to invest more money in Kazakhstan
infrastructure projects.
Third, China is demanding that the defector be returned to China. If
she is returned to China, then she would be killed or permanently
"disappeared," and the Kazakh "people will say the government cannot
protect its own people," according to an activist. If she isn't
returned, then the Chinese will be furious, and the investments might
be in jeopardy. AFP
****
**** The explosive testimony: thousands of Kazakhs in China's reeducation camps
****
The defector is 41 year old Sayragul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh who is
a Chinese citizen. She had been working as a Kindergarten teacher in
China for several years. According to her public testimony, she was
forced to work in a camp system in Xinjiang region, which is heavily
populated by Muslims. Her testimony became explosive when she said:
<QUOTE>"In the center where I was, there were more than 2,500
ethnic Kazakhs. And I know that in that region, there were several
other similar camps."<END QUOTE>
According to news reports, everyone in the courtroom gasped when she
said this. The exceptions were two men who had arrived from the
Chinese embassy to watch the trial, and who remained silent.
She testified that she was arrested and sent to a camp after her
husband and children returned to Kazakhstan, which the Chinese
authorities consider to be suspicious behavior, even though it had
been commonplace for years:
<QUOTE>"In 2018, they sent me to work in a political
reeducation camp in the mountains. Officially, this is a training
center where people study Chinese ideology. But in reality this
was a prison."<END QUOTE>
Unlike Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs had long moved freely between China and
Kazakhstan, and there are some 200,000 ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang.
However, the freedom to move back and forth disappeared late in 2016
in a crackdown by Chinese authorities, who took the unprecedented step
of requiring all Muslims to turn in their passports. This meant that
anyone who wanted to travel back to Kazakhstan had to file an official
request, and hope for approval.
At the time of the crackdown, Sauytbay's husband and children
were in Kazakhstan. According to her testimony, she was
not allowed to return to Kazakhstan, but was "tricked" into
working in the reeducation center, where she lost contact
with her family.
Finally, on April 5 of this year, she used forged documents to
illegally cross from China into Kazakhstan in order to reunite with
her family. On May 22, she was arrested by the National Security
Committee, the successor agency to the Soviet KGB.
Sauytbay testified on July 13:
<QUOTE>"I fully accept my guilt and I am willing to endure
any punishment. I only ask one thing – that you do not send me to
China. A death sentence awaits me there."<END QUOTE>
Since she has admitted guilt, the government is faced whether to
decline to deport her, and anger China, or to hand her over to China,
which may trigger anti-government riots and demonstrations in
Kazakhstan.
For two decades, Kazakhstan's government has cast itself as a
protector of Kazakhs abroad. It now must take a tough stand or lose
credibility with the domestic population. At the same time, when
China might have expected to gain real influence in Kazakhstan, the
court trial is going to make that almost impossible in the near term.
The Kazakh people are also extremely suspicious of Russians as well.
As we reported in April,
Kazakhstan is already permitting America to use Caspian Sea ports to
supply military in Afghanistan, a move opposed by Russia because it
changes the balance of power in Central Asia.
With nationalism and xenophobia towards both Chinese and Russians
increasing, Kazakhstan may have to seek friends and allies elsewhere,
perhaps in the West or in the Muslim world. EurasiaNet and Jamestown
****
**** China's 'reeducation centers' are described as torture centers
****
According to a Congressional report in April of this year, reeducation
centers are prisons where torture is standard:
<QUOTE>"There are credible media reports that as many as
500,000 to a million people are or have been detained in what are
being called “political education centers,” the largest mass
incarceration of a minority population in the world today.
Thousands are being held for months at a time and subjected to
political indoctrination sessions. Many have reportedly been
detained for praying, wearing “Islamic” clothing, or having
foreign connections, such as previous travel abroad or relatives
living in another country. Reports have emerged of the deaths of
detainees in these centers, including the death of a well-known
Muslim religious scholar who may have been held in such a
facility, and there are reports that torture and other human
rights abuses are occurring in overcrowded centers secured by
guard towers, barbed wire, and high walls.<END QUOTE>
Survivors of these reeducation camps have described starvation,
torture and a system of indoctrination akin to what China saw at the
height of the Cultural Revolution. Sauytbay said inmates are required
to read ideological literature, memorize the national anthem and study
Chinese. Detainees are predominantly Uyghurs and Kazakhs, whose
cultural distinctness is taken as a sign of “lack of patriotism.”
Another ethnic Kazakh named Omer has described how he was
constantly tortured, including the following:
<QUOTE>"There, he and 40 people were locked in a room. I get
up every morning and I sing "red songs", they have to learn
Chinese and Chinese history, especially how the Communist Party
"liberated" Xinjiang. Before eating, you should shout "thank you
for the party" and so on, when you are in class, repeat the slogan
several times."<END QUOTE>
The Chinese can be pretty stupid, but it's hard to believe that even
they are stupid enough to believe that the above actually works. No
wonder the Kazakhs, Uighurs and Tibetans all hate the Chinese, and
certainly don't consider them to be "liberators." US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (3-Apr) and
Epoch Times (19-Jul)
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Kazakhstan, Sayragul Sauytbay,
China, Xinjiang, Uighurs, reeducation centers,
Caspian Sea, Afghanistan, Russia, Tibet
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Defector in Kazakhstan reveals explosive information about China's 'reeducation centers'
- The explosive testimony: thousands of Kazakhs in China's reeducation camps
- China's 'reeducation centers' are described as torture centers
****
**** Defector in Kazakhstan reveals explosive information about China's 'reeducation centers'
****
Sayragul Sauytbay, enclosed in a glass cage in courtroom, awaiting trial (AFP)
A defector from China, who is on trial in Kazakhstan for breaking the
law by crossing the border from China, has revealed explosive
information about ethnic Kazakhs in China being forced into
"reeducation centers."
This information is explosive for three reasons.
First, China has always denied the existence of "reeducation centers,"
although there have been plenty testimonies and official documents
proving their existence. Since 2016, Chinese authorities in the have
ensnared tens or hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Xinjiang
province, even foreign citizens, into mass internment camps. The
program aims to rewire detainees' thinking and reshape their
identities. Chinese officials say ideological changes are needed to
fight Islamic extremism.
Second, the testimony revealed that China is forcing thousands of
ethnic Kazakhs into these reeducation centers. This is polarizing the
Kazakh public against China at a time when the Kazakh government is
trying to convince China to invest more money in Kazakhstan
infrastructure projects.
Third, China is demanding that the defector be returned to China. If
she is returned to China, then she would be killed or permanently
"disappeared," and the Kazakh "people will say the government cannot
protect its own people," according to an activist. If she isn't
returned, then the Chinese will be furious, and the investments might
be in jeopardy. AFP
****
**** The explosive testimony: thousands of Kazakhs in China's reeducation camps
****
The defector is 41 year old Sayragul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh who is
a Chinese citizen. She had been working as a Kindergarten teacher in
China for several years. According to her public testimony, she was
forced to work in a camp system in Xinjiang region, which is heavily
populated by Muslims. Her testimony became explosive when she said:
<QUOTE>"In the center where I was, there were more than 2,500
ethnic Kazakhs. And I know that in that region, there were several
other similar camps."<END QUOTE>
According to news reports, everyone in the courtroom gasped when she
said this. The exceptions were two men who had arrived from the
Chinese embassy to watch the trial, and who remained silent.
She testified that she was arrested and sent to a camp after her
husband and children returned to Kazakhstan, which the Chinese
authorities consider to be suspicious behavior, even though it had
been commonplace for years:
<QUOTE>"In 2018, they sent me to work in a political
reeducation camp in the mountains. Officially, this is a training
center where people study Chinese ideology. But in reality this
was a prison."<END QUOTE>
Unlike Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs had long moved freely between China and
Kazakhstan, and there are some 200,000 ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang.
However, the freedom to move back and forth disappeared late in 2016
in a crackdown by Chinese authorities, who took the unprecedented step
of requiring all Muslims to turn in their passports. This meant that
anyone who wanted to travel back to Kazakhstan had to file an official
request, and hope for approval.
At the time of the crackdown, Sauytbay's husband and children
were in Kazakhstan. According to her testimony, she was
not allowed to return to Kazakhstan, but was "tricked" into
working in the reeducation center, where she lost contact
with her family.
Finally, on April 5 of this year, she used forged documents to
illegally cross from China into Kazakhstan in order to reunite with
her family. On May 22, she was arrested by the National Security
Committee, the successor agency to the Soviet KGB.
Sauytbay testified on July 13:
<QUOTE>"I fully accept my guilt and I am willing to endure
any punishment. I only ask one thing – that you do not send me to
China. A death sentence awaits me there."<END QUOTE>
Since she has admitted guilt, the government is faced whether to
decline to deport her, and anger China, or to hand her over to China,
which may trigger anti-government riots and demonstrations in
Kazakhstan.
For two decades, Kazakhstan's government has cast itself as a
protector of Kazakhs abroad. It now must take a tough stand or lose
credibility with the domestic population. At the same time, when
China might have expected to gain real influence in Kazakhstan, the
court trial is going to make that almost impossible in the near term.
The Kazakh people are also extremely suspicious of Russians as well.
As we reported in April,
Kazakhstan is already permitting America to use Caspian Sea ports to
supply military in Afghanistan, a move opposed by Russia because it
changes the balance of power in Central Asia.
With nationalism and xenophobia towards both Chinese and Russians
increasing, Kazakhstan may have to seek friends and allies elsewhere,
perhaps in the West or in the Muslim world. EurasiaNet and Jamestown
****
**** China's 'reeducation centers' are described as torture centers
****
According to a Congressional report in April of this year, reeducation
centers are prisons where torture is standard:
<QUOTE>"There are credible media reports that as many as
500,000 to a million people are or have been detained in what are
being called “political education centers,” the largest mass
incarceration of a minority population in the world today.
Thousands are being held for months at a time and subjected to
political indoctrination sessions. Many have reportedly been
detained for praying, wearing “Islamic” clothing, or having
foreign connections, such as previous travel abroad or relatives
living in another country. Reports have emerged of the deaths of
detainees in these centers, including the death of a well-known
Muslim religious scholar who may have been held in such a
facility, and there are reports that torture and other human
rights abuses are occurring in overcrowded centers secured by
guard towers, barbed wire, and high walls.<END QUOTE>
Survivors of these reeducation camps have described starvation,
torture and a system of indoctrination akin to what China saw at the
height of the Cultural Revolution. Sauytbay said inmates are required
to read ideological literature, memorize the national anthem and study
Chinese. Detainees are predominantly Uyghurs and Kazakhs, whose
cultural distinctness is taken as a sign of “lack of patriotism.”
Another ethnic Kazakh named Omer has described how he was
constantly tortured, including the following:
<QUOTE>"There, he and 40 people were locked in a room. I get
up every morning and I sing "red songs", they have to learn
Chinese and Chinese history, especially how the Communist Party
"liberated" Xinjiang. Before eating, you should shout "thank you
for the party" and so on, when you are in class, repeat the slogan
several times."<END QUOTE>
The Chinese can be pretty stupid, but it's hard to believe that even
they are stupid enough to believe that the above actually works. No
wonder the Kazakhs, Uighurs and Tibetans all hate the Chinese, and
certainly don't consider them to be "liberators." US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (3-Apr) and
Epoch Times (19-Jul)
Related Articles
- Kazakhstan to permit America to use Caspian ports to supply military in Afghanistan (28-Apr-2018)
- The Caspian Corridor and the New Silk Road (25-May-2016)
- China overtaking both Russia and US in influence in Central Asia (05-Aug-2016)
- Kazakhstan farmers riot over fears of encroachment from China (22-May-2016)
- Kazakhstan becomes anxious over Russia's annexation of Crimea (25-Mar-2014)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Kazakhstan, Sayragul Sauytbay,
China, Xinjiang, Uighurs, reeducation centers,
Caspian Sea, Afghanistan, Russia, Tibet
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
