• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / Testimonies China

Children of Detained Uyghurs Left to Fend for Themselves

08/06/2019Xiang Yi |

Testimonies by Han Chinese about the plight of “orphaned” children in Xinjiang: freezing on streets, monitored by classmates and teachers as suspected terrorists.

 by Xiang Yi

People’s hearts have been touched by the fate of “orphaned” Uyghur children whose parents are locked up in transformation through education camps in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Many have been put in orphanages and welfare homes that are more like prisons than places suitable for children to live and be educated in. Others, even toddlers, have been left to fend for themselves, as authorities “deradicalize” and “teach” their parents. Without parental care and affection, deprived of their cultural environment and forced to learn in Mandarin Chinese only, the future of these children remains bleak and uncertain.

Bitter Winter talked to a teacher and some students from Xinjiang about their experience with the children whose parents are detained in these internment camps.

Eight-year-old boy freezing on a street

A primary school teacher recounted to Bitter Winter that on a freezing November day last year she noticed an eight-year-old Uyghur boy shivering on the street. He was wearing a thin jacket, while everyone around was in sweaters and heavy coats.

“Are you cold? Why are you dressed so lightly?” the teacher asked the boy, but he said nothing.

The teacher pulled open the boy’s thin coat and was shocked to see that underneath it, he had at least four layers of short-sleeved shirts on his long-sleeved undershirt. The boy just kept looking with his big eyes, not uttering a word.

“No child should be left with no clothes to wear. Seeing an eight-year-old child freezing like this, I felt terrible,” the teacher still remembers the sadness seeing the shivering boy. “Eight-year-olds should be doted by their parents, but this Uyghur boy has been deprived of that right.”

In March 2017, the government locked up his parents in a transformation through education camp, the boy explained. There has been no word from them ever since.

The boy’s two siblings are still children as well, and they rely solely on their grandmother, who has diabetes, to look after them. For an elderly woman who is nearly 70 years old and has no source of income, life is extremely difficult; it’s even hard for them to have enough food and clothing.

“They put on everything they can wear. Their home is a mess. No one looks after their studies, and their grades are very poor,” explained one of the boy’s neighbors.

Even though they had applied for a minimum living subsidy, they haven’t received any government subsidies to date. As a result, they have to rely on a small amount of financial assistance from their relatives to scrape by.

This small amount of money does not come easily either since most people do everything they can to avoid the family members of detainees. A Hui resident said that since last year, ten of her friends had been locked up in transformation through education camps for unknown reasons. To avoid being implicated, she doesn’t dare to have any contact with the families of those detainees.

Han students assigned to monitor Muslim classmates

“They actually have no freedom. When they go out, they always have to report to their teacher and ask for permission to leave,” a Han middle school student in Xinjiang said while talking about his Muslim classmates. All of them have something in common: their family members are detained in transformation through education camps.

“One of my classmate’s brother was recently sent to a camp. A few days later, the father of another one was also locked up,” the student said. “Even though they haven’t been thrown into camps themselves, Muslim students are still controlled tightly.”

The student explained that his school assigns Han students a Muslim classmate to be monitored on a one-on-one basis. Students refer to this method as “pairing,” while the school administration claims that the initiative is meant to “learn from each other and make progress together.” In reality, it is intended to monitor the actions and thoughts of ethnic minority students.

“While in class, teachers and classmates keep an eye on them; others watch over them in dormitories – they are to be monitored at all times. In particular, during Ramadan, teachers will specially treat them to meals in order to monitor them and make sure they eat,” the student explained further. He added that if Muslim students feel sad and want to chat with other classmates whose family members are also detained, they must report to their “paired” classmate. Otherwise, they might be labeled as having a “problematic ideology.”

When asked why these children whose family members have been detained must also be monitored, another Han student explained that it is perceived that their families “teach them by words and by example.” His understanding is that the authorities believe that the children also have “extreme ideas in their minds, like, for example, use a pack of explosives to kill people.”

It is evident that under the school’s indoctrination, these ethnic Han children are already treating their innocent classmates as potential “terrorists.”

A primary school in Lop county in Xinjiang
A primary school in Lop county in Xinjiang takes in the children whose parents have been locked up in transformation through education camps. The school’s gate is strictly guarded.

Tagged With: Anti-Religion Activity in Schools, Muslim Uyghurs

bw-profile
Xiang Yi

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • The Urumqi Fire Was State Terror: The European Parliament Got It Right

    The Urumqi Fire Was State Terror: The European Parliament Got It Right

  • Celebrating Uyghur National Day at Amsterdam’s Dam Square

    Celebrating Uyghur National Day at Amsterdam’s Dam Square

  • Amsterdam: An Exhibition Shows the Uyghur Genocide as It Is

    Amsterdam: An Exhibition Shows the Uyghur Genocide as It Is

  • UK: China Accused of a Wide Range of Abuses in the House of Lords

    UK: China Accused of a Wide Range of Abuses in the House of Lords

Keep Reading

  • No Room for Denial: Timothy Grose Documents Atrocities in Xinjiang from CCP’s Own Sources
    No Room for Denial: Timothy Grose Documents Atrocities in Xinjiang from CCP’s Own Sources

    Official  denials fly in the face of social media proof to the contrary from the Communist Party faithful.

  • A Uyghur Poet Reminds Us that Uyghurs Are Seeking Justice from the World
    A Uyghur Poet Reminds Us that Uyghurs Are Seeking Justice from the World

    After the Urumqi fire, it is time for the international community to stop the genocide. Perhaps a poem may help.

  • Uyghur Women Forced to Marry Han Chinese Men
    Uyghur Women Forced to Marry Han Chinese Men

    Propaganda, incentives, and sheer coercion and blackmail have made the once rare interethnic marriages a daily occurrence.

  • Thailand Mistreats Refugees from China
    Thailand Mistreats Refugees from China

    Pressure is mounting to release Uyghur asylum seekers from horrific conditions in Thailand. Southern Mongolian and Christian refugees from China also face problems.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back by Gulfiye Y
  • Zhanargul Zhumatai: “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” by Ruth Ingram
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 1. The Aesthetic Mind by Massimo Introvigne
  • Stricter Rules on Private Tutoring Protect Ideology Rather than Parents by Wang Zhipeng
  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing by Massimo Introvigne
  • Hong Kong: Christian Scholar Peng Manyuan Released but Not Rehabilitated by Gladys Kwok
  • The Weaponization of the CCP’s “Zero COVID” Against Tibet by Marco Respinti
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 3. Art as Communication by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 4. Art and Illustration by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY