In Kashgar and Hotan, the system of reporting guests to the police within half an hour continues

According to the response to our radio, a resident of Kashgar New Town was detained by the Yapchan police station along with his wife for not reporting a relative who came to visit from Yining last week, and was released the next day after a night of interrogation. In the course of our reporter's investigation, a village policeman in Hotan revealed that the system of reporting the guest to the police within half an hour is being implemented.

In Uyghur from 2010 to 2015, during the period of national resistance against China, the Chinese authorities, in addition to a series of brutal repressive measures, called "to report any visitor to the house, even a neighbor, to the police within half an hour." Unwise security measures had been taken.

The reactions show that even today, when millions of Uyghur people have been sent to prisons and camps, these measures are still not being implemented. According to one of the people familiar with the situation, one of his relatives living in Yining visited the family of a man named Abdur Kadir in Yapchan village of New City, Kashgar. The relatives, who had not met even on the phone for 7-8 years, had a passionate conversation and forgot to report the guest to the community police. The community policeman who appeared at the door the next evening took Abdur Qadir and his wife from the host family to the police station and released them at dawn after a night of interrogation. After his release, Abdul Qadir revealed the reason for his overnight detention to guests and neighbors, but did not say anything about what he was asked during his detention. Embarrassed by this situation, especially the anxiety caused by the family, the guest ended his visit earlier than planned and returned home.

We called the relevant authorities in the country to find out about this ongoing concern in Uyghur. An officer from the Yapchan police station refused to answer our questions about the overnight detention of a man named Abdur Kadir and his wife. Another officer said he was aware of the arrest and release of a man named Abdur Kadir, but did not elaborate.

Some commenters who commented online about the reasons why the Chinese authorities are worried about the gathering of Uyghurs, attributed the reason to the colonial regime's anxiety and tyranny; Others believe that the main reason is the concealment of information about the ongoing genocide in the region.

We called Hotan to get the full picture of the situation. The police officers in the villages of Byotarek and Choda in Guma County also revealed that the system of registering guests who come to their homes with the police is still going on. One of the officers said that residents should report a guest to the police within 10 minutes. If you don't report within 30 minutes, you will be held accountable. The officer noted that this system is not only valid for adults, but also for 14-15-year-old teenagers.

Two years after the mass kidnapping in 2017, Chinese authorities have proudly announced that "acts of violence" in the region have dropped to zero, a victory for government-run camps, or so-called training centers. Independent observers argue that there is more than one reason for China's concern over Uyghur gatherings, but that it has political, social and historical background.