Uyghur Christian Ovalbek Turdakun described on April 13 how the Chinese government treated him after being abducted from his home one February morning, taking him to what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) called a training center but he said was a concentration camp.
“They call it a training center but it's actually a concentration camp,” he said during a Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation press conference.
Turdakun spoke to the atrocities the Chinese government imposes on ethnic and religious minorities that he witnessed after his imprisonment on Feb. 10, according to the press conference video.
The Victims of Communism (VOC) was created by Congress and has the duty of keeping the memory alive of the more than 100 million victims killed by communist regimes. It does this by promoting awareness of communism atrocities today and engaging generations about the history, ideology and legacy of communism, VOC said on its Facebook page.
“They also used to share films like how the people who escaped China, and how they are bringing those people back. Putting black socks or bags on their head and how they bring them back to China,” Turdakun said during the VOC press conference. “And that was what they were saying, that we can bring anyone from any part of the world.”
The CCP operates secret security forces outside of China to intimidate, silence or capture and repatriate individuals who the government identifies as enemies of the state, according to VOC.
Beijing's Operation Fox Hunt is an attempt to capture and repatriate what Chinese officials allege as fugitives who have participated in corruption and crime, according to a Pro Publica report. However, the persons of interest have been more likely political rivals of the CCP, businesspeople, dissidents and whistleblowers.
President Xi Jinping launched Operation Fox Hunt in 2014. Since the operation's launch, Chinese agents have recruited American accomplices to spy, harass and intimidate hundreds of Chinese expats who have become legal permanent U.S. residents or citizens, according to the Pro Publica report.
