A female officer in Xinjiang is forced to take part in the program of forced indoctrination of Uyghur Muslims and is not allowed to resign.
In December last year, the Xinjiang government introduced its ‘two full coverages’ policy. It stipulates that a Party cadre or a government employee must live with an ethnic family at their home towards the aim of “one big family of all ethnic groups.” But in reality, this is done to scrutinize the religious beliefs of all minorities and their attitudes towards the Chinese authorities. As soon as “problematic” persons are identified, they are arrested and detained.
Party cadres or government employees do not have the choice to opt-out of this ‘home-stay’ program. If they try to resist participating in it, they can be put in “transformation through education” camps. And so, the Communist Party has put in place a policy that terrorizes both the Xinjiang minorities and Party cadres.
Ms. Wang (pseudonym) has been a law enforcement officer for more than 20 years. Like many others, she opposed the policy the moment it came into effect.
However, she was worried that she would be designated as a “two-faced person,” if she spoke out against it. It is a term used to describe people who are sympathetic to minorities and opposed to the Communist Party. Such people are detained at “transformation through education” camps and forced to undertake physical labor in addition to their “studies.”
Being forced to do a job that was unethical from her perspective, Ms. Wang developed depression. She had trouble sleeping, eating and continuously felt miserable. As a result, she spent a month at a hospital.
To escape this job, she tried to resign after her hospitalization. But her resignation was rejection, and she was not to mention her feelings again, or she will be sent to the camps to “study.” She was told she could take sick leave and rest for a bit but participation in ‘home-stay’ program was compulsory.
Ms. Wang felt even worse. She told her family, “This society is becoming more and more incomprehensible.” She hasn’t been able to bring up the subject of resigning from the job with her seniors and continues to work despite her depression.
In April, the authorities ramped up the intensity of the program, and that increased the psychological pressure on Ms. Wang as well. Speaking about her experience from the time, she said, “As a woman, all of a sudden, I have to live and eat with strangers. We are of different ethnicities; we don’t speak the same language and have different ways of life. Living together is awkward for both sides. Can this promote ethnic unity? Aren’t they (CCP) controlling and depriving people of their freedom through this policy?”
As per latest reports, Ms. Wang has now been assigned guard duty. However, she continues to battle her depression as a result of the CCP’s policies.
Reported by Li Zaili
Li Zaili (uses pseudonyms for security reasons), born in Xinjiang in 1982, went to the United States to study at the age of 16. After graduating from university, Li returned to Xinjiang and worked in journalism. In 2014, Xinjiang authorities started detaining large numbers of Muslims in “transformation through education camps.” Learning of that, he left his original position and began independently collecting and organizing information related to “transformation through education camps,” and submitted articles for publication in overseas media outlets. After Bitter Winter was founded in May 2018, Li Zaili became a special correspondent of Bitter Winter covering Xinjiang, Xizang and some other regions in China.