Beijing's big secret was on her laptop
Interview - Asiye Abdulaheb
Asiye Abdulaheb Image: Aurélie Geurts
'You will end up in pieces in the black Kliko in your front yard.' Asiye Abdulaheb gets threats like that. This Uyghur Dutchwoman spent months on a bombshell in the form of Chinese state secrets about the infamous camps in Xinjiang. Thanks to her, the documents became world news but now Asiye fears reprisals. ''I need protection.''
Marije Vlaskamp 7 December 2019, 05:00 AM
Shaking with nerves, Asiye Abdulaheb (46) stares this summer in her Dutch living room at 24 pages of secret Chinese government documents on her laptop. Her mouth falls open. Never before has there been such irrefutable proof of how the camps function in which her people, the Uighurs, are locked up en masse.
The documents are stamped as jimi - secret. Asiye has the evidence Uighur activists have been longing for for years, but she doesn't know how to proceed. "I put a screenshot of such a document on Twitter, in the hope that a journalist or expert would find me."
She is sitting on top of a bomb: papers that undermine the Chinese government's official narrative. Beijing presents the camps as benign 'training centres' where Uighurs and other Muslims are 'cured' of extremist ideas, on a voluntary basis. The documents read rather as a manual for a prison camp. 'Manage locks and keys tightly - double-lock doors to dormitories, corridors and floors immediately after opening and closing.'
Students are checked during classes, showers and toilets, to prevent escape. And because this doesn't sound all that voluntary, it shouldn't leak out. 'It is necessary to increase staff awareness of secrecy and political discipline.'
The Uighurs are an Islamic people from the west of China, the province of Xinjiang. The area was given that name after China annexed it in 1949. Uighur activists call it East-Turkestan, their homeland that existed for a short time at the beginning of the last century. Uighur resistance to Han Chinese domination was expressed through social unrest and attacks - hundreds of people died each year. Without proper measures, this will develop into a Chinese version of the Islamic state, according to Beijing.
Those measures came in 2014, when large numbers of Uighurs start to disappear. According to human rights organisations, up to one million people are in camps. Evidence for this remains sporadic, in the form of testimonies from escaped internees, or details of tendering procedures for security equipment such as barbed wire and tasers. Beijing easily sweeps that off the table as malignant anti-Chinese propaganda.
But in these documents, the state itself - in its own bureaucratic jargon - tells how 'problem cases' are traced and locked up. China can breeze as much as it likes that the documents deliberately present an incomplete and heavily distorted picture, nevertheless the publication puts the human rights situation in Xinjiang sky high on every Western political agenda. After publication, the U.S. Senate quickly adopts a bill that provides for sanctions against Chinese politicians responsible for the camps.
It became world news
To the satisfaction of Asiye, the last link in a short chain of people who found and passed on the documents. To protect those involved, she gives no further details. Her clumsy scramble for help on Twitter leads to the German data researcher Adrian Zenz, who has been committing himself to Xinjiang for years. Zenz confirms that he is investigating the authenticity of the papers for Asiye. Language and layout are similar to comparable government documents from Xinjiang, according to Zenz. He is 'strongly convinced' of the authenticity. A second academic, who on request speaks anonymously, is also in contact with Asiye.
This is the game changer for the Uighurs, says Zenz. Not that the pieces are rare - the Chinese bureaucracy is teeming with internal instructions and reports. But passing them on is extremely risky. The leaking of state secrets may easily lead to ten years of imprisonment. 'Uighurs who possess such documents may face the death penalty,' says Darren Byler, an American anthropologist specialising in Xinjiang.
The news organisations that have contact with Asiye are also afraid of repercussions from Beijing. Eventually, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and The New York Times take care of the project, under the name
China Cables. In this way, the risk is spread over more than twenty different media. A week after the documents became world news, Asiye decided to make herself known to the Volkskrant as a source. She says: "I can handle pressure, but I'm afraid something will happen to my children and their father."
Jasur Abibula - Image: Aurélie Geurts
Asiye meets Jasur Abibula (46) at Schiphol Airport, where they happen to apply for asylum at the same time in 2009. Ten years go by: the refugees become Dutch, learn their way around in a new country, and have two children. They consciously keep their distance from the Uyghur activist club in the Netherlands - Asiye wants to remain independent of their diaspora politics, she says. As an Uighur intellectual, she neatly spent most of her life working within the Chinese political system. Her Mandarin is fine and she has always worked for state institutions. Her family is not exactly religious, some of them were even party members, she says. She doesn't want to say anything about her motivation to flee.
The gentle Jasur works as a gardener, and that quiet Dutch life is enough for him. He is less activist than Asiye who tweets a lot and puts political monologues on YouTube. She is now busy with the children who are just attending primary school, but ultimately she wants more than such a housewives' existence. Writing essays about Uighur history, finding work, improving her Dutch: later, when the children grow up, she will do all that. Because of the differences between them, their marriage does not last.
Asiye doesn't tell Jasur what's in the documents, even if threats come in through Messenger. 'Stop it, otherwise you'll end up cut into pieces in the black kliko in your front yard,' it says in Uyghur. "I do indeed have just such a kliko [waste disposal unit]. But those documents have to be published, even if it kills me." Vehement fear beats to her heart when Jasur is approached by an unknown Uyghur, who says he speaks on behalf of an old friend in Xinjiang. That friend wants to see Jasur as a matter of urgency, and he needs to do so in Dubai. Tickets, accommodation: everything is arranged, says the contact person.
Their first reaction is: not to go. Later on, they start to doubt. That friend has professional access to confidential government information - who knows, he might have something to help the Uyghur case. On 9 September, Jasur flew to Dubai. His friend appears to have a whole company around him. A Han Chinese who speaks Uighur, who says he works for the state security service, runs the show. The rest of the company also consists of spies.
Harassment by Beijing
An unverifiable story. Jasur has his boarding passes, a screenshot of a Whatsapp conversation with the middleman, and snapshots of Arab sights. This is not hard evidence of intimidation, but his story fits in with the modus operandi of Chinese security services across the border. Incidentally, it is common for dissidents in China to go on holiday with state security agents.
Jasur talks about five confusing days. In the evening meals with drinks in luxury hotels, during the day trips with a threatening undertone. "We would drive through the desert and they then said : 'if you hide a body here, nobody will find it.' ."
Since 2011, infiltration of the Uyghur community in the Netherlands has been mentioned as a matter of concern in the annual reports of the Dutch security service AIVD. Lately, more and more Uighurs complain about intimidation by the Chinese government. This openness is new. In the past, most Uighurs used to confine themselves to video messages about missing family members. Byler: "The local police in China contacts them to make sure they stop talking. This sometimes results in tiny benefits: video chats with family in camps, earlier release. If that solves the problem of a complaining Uighur, the police have that leeway. That's how much China is focused on controlling the story of the camps."
Hence the strong pressure in Dubai. Jasur's hosts want those documents. Which brand of laptop do Jasur and Asiye use, which smartphone? Jasur is not well versed in technology. They teach him to break into a laptop with a USB stick. On it are music videos, and a video recording in which Jasur recognizes the way to his parental home up to the front door. Then they let him watch their cell phones, for video footage of his mother who is questioned about Jasur. Crying, the elderly woman says that she cannot reach her son.
"We don't sleep anymore"
Uighurs with family abroad are potential candidates for 'training centres'. This is why many Uighurs break off all family contacts. So do Jasur and Asiye. "If I were to help, I would be allowed to visit my mother. I would get a visa without any problems," says Jasur. Where he works, how much he earns, where he lives, and with whom he mingles: his supervisors know everything. As a nice sideline job he is suggested to spy among fellow citizens in the Netherlands. 'We have so many Uighurs in the West who help us. You can do the same.' Jasur feels the veiled threat: they are everywhere.
Back in the Netherlands paranoia grabs him. When he visits Asiye in her terraced house, he first disposes of all the clothes and other things that went with him to Dubai. He puts them out of earshot in the garden - suppose there's a transmitter in there somewhere. When he hears what these documents say, Jasur is so desperate that he wants to flee to the United States. "The Netherlands is so small, where can I hide?"
Scary phone calls, vague acquaintances who suddenly appear at the door: the pressure is increased. They report the threat to the local police. They call in the AIVD, says Asiye. "That helps a bit, but we don't sleep anymore. We need more protection. Publicity offers us security."
Her fears are well-founded, says anthropologist Byler, especially when it comes to family members in Xinjiang. Yet he thinks that the Chinese security apparatus ultimately gives priority to blocking sensitive information. "It's already out in the open, they cannot do anything about it anymore. If you don't keep quiet about intimidation, if you challenge them to live up to their bluff, at some point they usually stop."
Asiye and Jasur look the one-party state straight in the eye and say: here we are. Adrian Zenz: "The Chinese government knew already that she's the hatch. With these new revelations she does insult China, but when they should tackle her she draws attention to Chinese interference abroad, and Xinjiang gets even higher on the map."
Now that she has made herself known, her heart feels lighter, says Asiye. "Thank God we haven't betrayed anyone. We are fairly well integrated in the Netherlands. We rely on the community policeman."
Translated with
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