The amazing and frightening story of Sayragul Sauytbay, one of the first to escape from China and relate the horrendous treatment of the Muslim minority people. Born in China’s northwestern province, Sayragul Sauytbay trained as a doctor before being appointed a senior civil servant. But her life was upended when the Chinese authorities incarcerated her. Her crime: being Kazakh, one of China’s ethnic minorities.
The northwestern province borders the largest number of foreign nations and is the point in China that is closest to Europe. In recent years it has become home to over 1,200 penal camps — modern-day gulags that are estimated to house three million members of the Kazakh and Uyghur minorities. Imprisoned solely due to their ethnicity, inmates are subjected to relentless punishment and torture, including being beaten, raped, and used as subjects for medical experiments. The camps represent the greatest systematic incarceration of an entire people since the Third Reich.
In prison, Sauytbay was put to work teaching Chinese language, culture, and politics, in the course of which she gained access to secret information that revealed Beijing’s long-term plans to undermine not only its minorities, but democracies around the world. Upon her escape to Europe she was reunited with her family, but still lives under constant threat of reprisal. An almost unbelievable story of persecution and then escape to freedom!
In addition to her story, we will explore the newest evidence of China’s persecution and genocide of Uyghur population including internment, slave labor, organ harvesting, and genocide.
What to Expect: Familiar to Chesapeake Forum participants as the co-moderators of Great Decisions, Rich and Bob will lead a discussion based on the book (so plan on reading it ahead of time if at all possible!). A second session will discuss China’s continued persecution, organ harvesting, and genocide of the Uyghur population.
Feedback from past courses led by Rich and Bob:
“I learned more, and sorry I could not add more. It was a great learning experience, and I thank you very much for the great conversations.”
“A terrific set of course sessions for going deeper into geopolitical topics you only THOUGHT you knew about; contemporary issues facing the US and world. Learning develops from the professional materials, updated topic links, and the engaging course participants and discussion leaders. A must!”
“Great to have articulate people with differing opinions in the group who were willing to listen and learn from one another.”
“This was one of the best, most engaging, GD programs I have ever participated in. Great civil discussion where we all learned from one another. It was great to be back In Person!”
