Xinjiang arrests, “re-educates” ethnic minorities

Abudereheman Molida, a Kazakh woman
from Xinjiang, speaks of the arrest of her
husband, who was arrested for leaving
China. (Photo: ChinaAid)

ChinaAid

(Xinjiang, China—Feb. 12, 2018) In an effort to quarantine Uyghur and Kazakh citizens who have connections to the outside world, authorities in China’s northwestern Xinjiang are conducting a series of arrests, amid a wider array of plans to target ethnic minorities.

Kazakh people residing in Xinjiang have undergone a series of arrests and since last spring, when the government began targeting members of the ethnic minority group for returning to their homeland. The arrested include exchange students who returned to visit family and herdsmen who went to Kazakhstan to take care of their assets. Abudureheman Molida, a woman of Kazakh descent who emigrated from Xinjiang to Kazakhstan last year pleaded with the Chinese authorities last week to release her husband, Kadelbeck Talefbieck. Talefbieck, a Kazakhstan green card holder, was arrested upon his return to China in August and detained in one of the “training centers” prepared to “re-educate ethnic minorities.” Molida issued a public appeal to international human rights organizations and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and urged them to negotiate with China for her husband’s release.

Authorities estimate between 200,000-300,000 people will be sent to such training centers and indoctrinated with officially-approved propaganda.

Nurdiguli Wawani Xibike, a university student in Kazakhstan, said that her classmate, Chinese citizen of Kazakh descent Aisinbatti Thuldijiang, returned to Xinjiang to spend her winter vacation with her family, but customs officials confiscated her passport when she tried to return to school and forbade her from going abroad. Thuldijiang’s mother told overseas students that her daughter’s cell phone had been taken away by public security agents and warned them not to call her.

As a sophomore at Jetet Su National University, Thuldijiang has spent her winter holiday with her family before and returned without incident.

Another student, 19-year-old Uyghur Turjongjiang Yusupu, moved from Urumqi, Xinjiang to Bahai University in Antalya, Turkey last year to begin his studies. Seven months ago, his father and brother were arrested, and their whereabouts remain unknown. Turjongjiang disappeared on Jan. 27, 2018, after returning to Urumqi to care for his mother and sister a few weeks earlier. He is still missing.

A source belonging to China’s Han majority reported that many ethnic minorities would like to go abroad soon in order to renew their passport or green card. The public security agents are demanding money for such actions, charging up to 30,000 yuan ($4,770.00 USD) to renew a passport. A Muslim living in the area said that after they renewed their passports, they also had to pay the local officials and public security bureau personnels to stamp their exit permits

ChinaAid exposes abuses, such as those suffered by ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, in order to stand in solidarity with the persecuted and promote religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law.


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Xinjiang arrests, “re-educates” ethnic minorities

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