Surveillance cams, face scans help China make thousands vanish
December 17, 2017A Uighur student who moved to Washington following the crackdown this summer said that after his move, his wife, a government worker still in Urumqi, messaged to say the police would show up at her home in 20 minutes. She had to say goodbye: after that she would delete him permanently from her contacts list.
A month later he received calls on WhatsApp from a man who introduced himself as Ekber, a Uighur official from the international cooperation office of the Xinjiang regional public security bureau, who wanted him to work for them in the U.S. — and warned him against saying no.
“If you’re not working for us then you’re working for someone else. That’s not a road you want to take,” he snapped.
A week after that, he couldn’t help himself placing one last call home. His daughter picked up.
“Mom is sick but she doesn’t want me to speak to you. Goodbye,” she said.