In 10 months in 2018, Ovalbek Turdakun was an inmate in one of China’s notorious detention camps, where he was tortured, subjected to horrible conditions, and under constant surveillance.
In a makeshift courtroom inside the detention center where he is being held, Turdakun is not allowed to speak and is forced to sign papers he does not have time to read. As a former law student, he knew that the court was not following a proper legal process, but was still told that the court’s decision would lead to “great things” for him, that he will be able to study and live for free.
Turdakun is a Chinese passport holder and Kyrgyz, one of several ethnic groups – including Kazakhs, Tajiks and Uyghurs – who have been accused of dubious if not fabricated crimes and detained and detained. in vast detention camps across Xinjiang, an area in northwest China where most ethnic brothers live. Beijing calls them vocational and educational centers and says they are meant to combat Islamic extremism. But Turdakun is a Christian who researchers say have also been targeted and arbitrarily detained by the state.
United Nations watchdogs say China has detained at least a million of its own citizens in detention camps in recent years, but the number is believed to be higher. The Biden Manager declared China’s treatment of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities a “genocide”, although Beijing has long denied allegations of human rights abuses.
Turdakun was only able to tell this story after US immigration authorities granted him and his family parole access to the US after congressional lawmakers lobbied on their behalf. Turdakun and his wife, Zhyldyz Uraalieva, and their son arrived in Washington, DC, on April 8.
“There is no freedom inside that place,” Turdakun said in an interview with TechCrunch, speaking through a translator, in Washington on Tuesday. Even after being released under conditions similar to house arrest, Turdakun said he would face facial recognition and harassment by police officers every time he left the house.
IPVM government director Conor Healy (left), Ovalbek Turdakun, his son, and his wife Zhyldyz (right) in Kyrgyzstan, pictured before their arrival in the United States in April. Image credits: Conor Healy / offers.
As a former prisoner, Turdakun is one of the few people with first-hand accounts of the inside of China’s prison camps, including rare knowledge of how the Chinese government uses technology, surveillance surveillance and facial recognition to crack down on millions of Xinjiang residents, which US lawmakers will use to investigate human rights abuses in China and Chinese companies provide surveillance technology to camps.
A letter seen by TechCrunch sent by Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey in support of Turdakun’s pre-parole case said his knowledge would provide important evidence regarding the “use of public technology provided by Chinese companies like Hikvision to facilitate serious international violations of human rights recognized by the Chinese government”.
Smith, whose office did not return a request for comment, is a vocal critic in Congress of China’s human rights record, including its use of surveillance technology to commit human rights abuses. . Senator Marco Rubio, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also reported supported Turdakun’s immigration efforts.
Hikvision is one of the world’s largest suppliers of video surveillance cameras, making about $10 billion in profits in 2020. A year earlier, it was one of several Chinese tech companies. more on the U.S. government’s economic sanctions entity list, which prohibits the company from purchasing U.S. components without government approval, citing its role in permit violations of human rights in Xinjiang.
Primarily, successive US administrations have alleged that Beijing relies heavily on companies like Hikvisionbut also Dahua, Huawei, SenseTime, and others, to provide the surveillance technology they use to monitor Xinjiang’s population across the region and also in its many detention camps.
Before arriving in the United States, Turdakun described the conditions of his detention, brutal interrogations, and forced medical procedures in a series of video interviews recorded by Conor Healy, chief executive officer. government at video surveillance news site IPVM. In December, Healy met with Turdakun and his family in Kyrgyzstan, where they had been for the past year, to help them get immigration paperwork to come to the United States, amid concerns that Kyrgyz authorities could deport the family to China, Healy told TechCrunch. .
In a video interview shared with TechCrunch, Healy showed Turdakun a photo of the Hikvision logo, which the former inmate instantly recognized, saying it was an identical logo on cameras in the prison cells. detention and litter all over the city.
Speaking to TechCrunch on Tuesday, Turdakun described the cells where he will be held alongside two dozen other inmates for months at a time and how the cameras, all with the Hikvision logo, “always on and follow,” he said. If the camera sees anyone talking, an explosive voice will tell them not to talk.
He described how detainees would spend hours in silence, captured by cameras, and they would have little human contact outside of their cells for long periods of time; Usually the door will stay closed for a long time and the food will be pushed through a slot in the door. Even if it’s only a few feet away to use the hole-in-the-wall toilet he describes, you’ll still need to raise your hand and ask permission to “always have CCTV,” says Turdakun.
Turdakun was released in November 2018 on the same terms as house arrest, where he would be monitored around the clock from a GPS tracker on his wrist that could only be unlocked with a key. special key. Despite being allowed to leave his home and travel around his small city, he was subjected to constant harassment by the authorities.
“Every time,” he insisted when asked again.
“The cameras would see me and send an alarm,” he said, describing the use of facial recognition throughout his vicinity. “The cameras are back [6 feet] height – also Hikvision – and they are on every sidewalk,” he said. “There are so many of them, they don’t need to change the direction of the camera. It doesn’t matter how long the road is, even the shortest path will have a camera. The whole city has CCTV cameras.”
TechCrunch was unable to independently verify Turdakun’s account, which is consistent with other accounts, though rare from survivors in the Xinjiang Detention Center. During the interview, Turdakun showed a sketch where he drew a map of the detention center’s layout, which corresponded to a satellite image of the camp where he was being held.
In an emailed statement sent through a public relations firm specializing in crisis management, Hikvision said it “takes all reports relating to human rights very seriously” but declined to name a spokesperson. of the company.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, denied the allegation in an emailed statement.
Human rights lawyers say the ex-prisoner’s testimony will provide crucial evidence for the case has been filed with the International Criminal Court in The Hague. UK barrister Rodney Dixon, who is leading the team gathering evidence on China’s human rights abuses, said in a letter supporting Turdakun’s parole that testifying was “important” to Mr. with him in future proceedings.
Turdakun told TechCrunch that he wants more people to know about conditions in Xinjiang.
“Coming to America and being peaceful and safe has been a goal of our family for a long time,” he said.
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