Decades of service to China's government didn't save my Uyghur dad from prison
By Subi Mamat Yuksel
In 2017, my family’s nightmare began: Over four decades, my father, Mamat Abdullah, had served China in many posts, including in the 1990s as the mayor of Korla, the second-largest city in the Xinjiang region. He helped open up trade with other parts of China for Korla’s agricultural products, including its famous pears. His last government position was as chief of the regional forestry bureau. He was held in high esteem in Urumqi, the regional capital — my home before I immigrated to the United States.
He was a member of the Chinese Communist Party. He had no involvement with Uyghur separatists, always followed the law, and wanted Uyghurs and Han to coexist peacefully. He traveled to the United States on several occasions, often for work and also to visit me, my brother and our families. My parents planned to visit again in 2017 and got initial approval from the Chinese government.
But right before they were supposed to travel, my father, who is now in his mid-70s, was suddenly taken away by Chinese authorities, without explanation. I got the news at 3 a.m. in Manassas, Va. When I reached my mother a few hours later on WeChat, she put her wrists together to show me the sign for handcuffs. “Your father,” she wept, “your father.” He had joined the growing number of Uyghurs, estimated at more than 1 million, held in prisons and concentration camps for no reason other than being Uyghur. The darkest time of my life had begun, and I still don’t know if or when it will end.
After my father went missing, Chinese government agents questioned my mother and my sister, who still live in Urumqi, day after day for months, sometimes for hours at a time. Officials wanted to know about my family’s associations, particularly in the Virginia and Washington area, because my brother and I live here and know other Uyghurs who’ve made America their home. These types of questions are common for those of us who live abroad but whose families still live back home. In the eyes of China’s government, a simple social gathering of friends abroad is often spun as a political event. It’s why we believe that Chinese officials may have held it against my father when he attended my wedding. And it’s why, long before he was arrested, my father warned us to focus on school and work, and discouraged us from any involvement with anything that could be perceived as activism — a warning my brother and I heeded until 2020. Though I applied for asylum in the United States in 2010, and my brother applied in 2007, we made a point of not speaking on political issues.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/uyghur-china-father-prison/2021/04/16/3cc196fe-985f-11eb-a6d0-13d207aadb78_story.html