美国国家公共电台 NPR China Has Begun Moving Xinjiang Muslim Detainees To Formal Prisons, Relatives Say

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The U.S. has added 28 Chinese organizations to a trade blacklist - this over China's alleged¹ abuse against ethnic² Uighurs in China's western region of Xinjiang. Since 2016, China has detained up to a million and a half Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. Beijing says the detentions⁴ are a counterterrorism measure. The Chinese government also claims its detention³ centers in Xinjiang are actually vocational training centers and that most of the people held there have been released. A lot of these detainees have families living in neighboring Kazakhstan. And NPR's Emily Feng traveled there recently. She found a very different story than the one the Chinese government is telling.

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EMILY FENG, BYLINE⁵: I'm struggling to get up this Soviet-era walk-up to meet Aibota Zhanibek. Born in Xinjiang, she's now a Kazakh citizen and a full-time⁶ homemaker caring for her four children.

(SOUNDBITE OF BABY COOING)

FENG: Is it her sister?

Underneath⁷ her domestic tranquility, Zhanibek is hiding a story of pain. Her immediate⁸ family still lives in Xinjiang. Her mother and sister were detained last year because they're ethnically⁹ Kazakh and practicing Muslims.

AIBOTA ZHANIBEK: (Through interpreter) My mother was just sentenced to 20 years for being religious. She is being held in Urumqi Women's Prison No. 2.

FENG: Zhanibek's mother, Nurzhada Zhumakhan, can briefly¹⁰ video call her husband from prison twice a month.

ZHANIBEK: (Through interpreter) My mom looked so thin, according to my dad. She was nearly blind, and she was completely shaved.

FENG: Her sister, Kunekai Zhanibek, fared better. She spent seven months in a detention camp making towels and carpets for no pay until this summer. She was released and is now in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. She has a state-assigned job but can't leave Urumqi without permission. Every aspect of her life is still controlled, even the most personal of decisions.

ZHANIBEK: (Through interpreter) She got married recently but had to ask for permission to marry. Can you imagine having to ask for something like that?

FENG: What Zhanibek's mother's imprisonment¹¹ and her sister's release encapsulate is a significant shift currently underway in Xinjiang. In July, Xinijang authorities said most detainees had been released. Here's Alken Tuniaz, Xinjiang government's vice¹² chairman, using a euphemism¹³ for the detention camps.

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ALKEN TUNIAZ: (Through interpreter) Most people who received educational training have returned to society and returned home.

FENG: This September, NPR interviewed 26 relatives of ethnic Kazakhs and Uighurs currently detained or imprisoned¹⁴ in Xinjiang and five former detainees. They described how they themselves or loved ones had been sentenced to prison. These sentences have allowed Xinjiang officials to claim the population at the so-called vocational training centers has gone down. But not because everyone is being released - it's because many of them have been sent to more formal prisons in Xinjiang.

SHAKHIDYAM MEMANOVA: (Through interpreter) It was a closed court trial. They just read the verdict to him, according to his parents.

FENG: Shakhidyam Memanova is Uighur. Her husband, Nuermaimaiti Maimaitiyiming, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in May. She suspects it was because he took Islamic doctrine¹⁵ classes when he was 14. But neither she nor her in-laws can be sure.

MEMANOVA: (Through interpreter) No one ever explained to us why he was even detained.

FENG: The prison sentences seemed to target Muslims who exhibit religious behavior. Twenty-three of the 32 people NPR learned have been sentenced to prison in Xinjiang recently were religious students and imams or simply prayed regularly. Twenty-seven-year-old Bahedati Aken is being held in the same prison as Memanova's husband. Aken was sentenced last June to 15 years with an imam and at least five other students for studying the Quran. Here's his aunt, Gulbaran Omirali.

GULBARAN OMIRALI: (Through interpreter) He was 13 when he attended two months of religious courses. I do not understand why something so long ago and which was legal at the time is now a crime.

FENG: Relatives said their loved ones are sentenced in brief, closed trials where they are not given a chance to defend themselves or present their own evidence. Ergali Ermekuly is a Kazahk man who was sentenced in April 2013 to three years for downloading WhatsApp and traveling to Kazakhstan.

ERGALI ERMEKULY: (Through interpreter) They did tell me I could hire a lawyer, but based on cases of other people in the detention camp, those who hired lawyers were given longer sentences because it was seen as a sign of opposition¹⁶ to the state.

FENG: Ermekuly was one of 2,000 Kazakhs released in December 2018 as part of an agreement between Kazakhstan and China. But he says his life was destroyed because of his imprisonment and the emotional and mental trauma¹⁷ incurred¹⁸. His wife divorced him this year.

ERMEKULY: (Through interpreter) I came back to Kazakhstan, but I have nothing.

FENG: But prisons aren't the only place detainees are going. Some are being released. But even when they are, they live within the strict confines of a surveillance state. They must report their weekly activities and get permission to travel between towns. Aydarhan Salamat's aunt, Meniarbek Mariya, is one of the many ethnic Kazakhs sentenced to prison this year. That's put Salamat's mother under scrutiny¹⁹. Once, she left town for a funeral without public security permission.

AYDARHAN SALAMAT: (Through interpreter) The public security bureau called my nephew within an hour, demanding she come back. At checkpoints, my mother's identification card sets off alarms. My mother is 80 years old.

FENG: Relatives desperate to learn more about loved ones in Xinjiang are turning to a new potential source of information - the slow trickle²⁰ of ethnic Kazakhs born in Xinjiang who can now get Chinese passports to travel to Kazakhstan. Muslim Xinjiang residents were effectively banned from getting passports starting in 2016. But as authorities wind down detentions, vetted²¹ Kazahks can visit family abroad as long as they leave loved ones as collateral²² in Xinjiang.

GULSERIK KAZYKHAN: (Through interpreter) If you don't return, the guarantors will suffer.

FENG: Gulserik Kazykhan explains how those who travel must name guarantors, like friends or relatives, who are punished if travelers don't return or meet people they aren't supposed to. Kazykhan has a relative who insisted on meeting her secretly - told her her brother-in-law, Raman uly Zahrkyn, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in February.

KAZYKHAN: (Through interpreter) My relative was forced to sign a document while crossing the border not to visit me.

FENG: Nurzat Yermekbai’s Chinese relative completely avoided visiting her in Almaty this August because Yermekbai is petitioning Kazakhstan about her brother, an imam in Xinjiang sentenced to 11 years in prison.

NURZAT YERMEKBAI: (Through interpreter) Now we're in this difficult situation where our families are separated and cannot communicate with each other, even in Kazakhstan, although my brother is innocent.

FENG: Her relatives are gripped by such fear they asked her to stop petitioning. This is what China has done, Yermekbai said. It turns your own family against you.

Emily Feng, NPR News, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

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1 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

2 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

3 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

4 detentions   

拘留( detention的名词复数 )； 扣押； 监禁； 放学后留校

参考例句：

• Teachers may assign detention tasks as they wish and some detentions have been actually dangerous. 老师可能随心所欲指派关禁闭的形式，有些禁闭事实上很危险。
• Intimidation, beatings and administrative detentions are often enough to prevent them from trying again. 恐吓，拷打和行政拘留足以阻止请愿者二次进京的脚步。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

7 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

8 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

9 ethnically   

adv.人种上，民族上

参考例句：

• Ethnically, the Yuan Empire comprised most of modern China's ethnic groups. 元朝的民族成分包括现今中国绝大多数民族。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• Russia is ethnically relatively homogeneous. 俄罗斯是个民族成分相对单一的国家。 来自辞典例句

10 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

11 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

12 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

13 euphemism   

n.婉言，委婉的说法

参考例句：

• Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture.语言反映文化,而婉语则是各种文化的一面镜子。
• Euphemism is a very common and complicated linguistic phenomenon.委婉语是一种十分常见而又非常复杂的语言现象。

14 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

15 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。

16 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

17 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

18 incurred   

[医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式

参考例句：

• She had incurred the wrath of her father by marrying without his consent 她未经父亲同意就结婚，使父亲震怒。
• We will reimburse any expenses incurred. 我们将付还所有相关费用。

19 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

20 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。

21 vetted   

v.审查（某人过去的记录、资格等）( vet的过去式和过去分词 )；调查；检查；诊疗

参考例句：

• The recruits were thoroughly vetted before they were allowed into the secret service. 情报机关招募的新成员要经过严格的审查。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All staff are vetted for links with extremist groups before being employed. 所有职员录用前均须审查是否与极端分子团体有关。 来自辞典例句

22 collateral   

adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品

参考例句：

• Many people use personal assets as collateral for small business loans.很多人把个人财产用作小额商业贷款的抵押品。
• Most people here cannot borrow from banks because they lack collateral.由于拿不出东西作为抵押，这里大部分人无法从银行贷款。