A testimony from our “100 Camp Testimonies” Book
I was born on December 1, 1970 in Ürümchi. I currently live in the Netherlands. I would like to give testimony to the fact that the Chinese national security agents reached out to me and asked me to spy and carry out a particular assignment for them; in addition, they threatened my family back in East Turkistan.
In mid-August 2019, a stranger added me on WhatsApp, who lived in Turkey. He told me that he was a cousin of my friend back home in East Turkistan, and that my friend had visited Turkey a few months back. My friend wanted to let me know via his cousin in Turkey that he was planning to go on a trip to Europe or Dubai. I told his cousin, “We can definitely meet up, and anywhere in Europe is fine by me. I cannot travel that far to Dubai at this moment.”
A week later, my friend’s cousin sent me a message, asking me if I could call my friend. I told him that it might bring him trouble as any contact from abroad could result in internment. However, he assured me that it would not bring any trouble to my friend. So, I called my friend, who told me that he could not get a visa to Europe, and he suggested that we meet in Dubai instead.
I did not want to ask for a leave of absence from work as I newly started my new job. A few days later, my friend messaged me requesting urgently that I needed to give him a call. So I called him, and he said, “We have something important to say to you, and it must be said face to face.” I got the permission from work to travel to Dubai for the meeting. Many people tried to warn me not to go to Dubai, especially my relatives.
I flew to Dubai on September 9, 2019 and sent my plane ticket info to my boss just in case. My boss would have been the only person who would look for me if I got disappeared. Upon my arrival, I was welcomed by my friend and the other two Uyghur guys at the airport. They took my passport and said they would buy a return ticket for me. I was taken to a Hilton hotel that was hundred miles away from the airport. We started talking over dinner, and my friend asked me, “What do you do for a living Jasur? We heard that you work in horticulture business. It’s hard work. Haven’t you thought about doing some side hustle?” “What exactly are you talking about,” I replied.
My friend told me that he was a national security agent (Guobao 国保) working for the Chinese regime. He finally cut to the chase and told me that they needed me to insert a USB stick into my ex-wife Asiye’s laptop.
I sensed a weird cold attitude coming from him when we first met at the airport, but over dinner he was trying to flatter me, which made me feel like I was duped into a trap. I did not give him my answer to his request right there and then, but I told him that I would give him an answer the following day. He said, “You don’t have to do it, and you can tell me that now.” I spent the night thinking over his request, and I thought that even if I refused to do what they asked of me, they would surely find someone else to hack into Asiye’s laptop. For the next few days, they took me out to various places. On the third day, we went to another hotel in Dubai. My friend took me out to the market and said he would buy me some stuff, trying his best to win my favor.
On my last day in Dubai, he asked me to go with him to another room to have a chat with him. The person who opened the door was a Han Chinese who spoke fluent Uyghur. They asked me if I missed my mother and my hometown and said that I was working very hard for a living. They continued, “If you work for us, you will have a better future.” They showed me cellphone videos of my elderly mother who was in East Turkistan, sending me an indirect message that they had access to my family back home. I was told that I could go to a Chinese embassy anytime and I would be given a visa to visit my hometown; moreover, all my expenses would be covered. They wanted me to cooperate with them and work for them. They emphasized, “We (the Chinese government) have become very strong now and we can even negotiate with countries like the USA. We have many people working for us in the Netherlands.”
Basically, they said all that with the intention of threatening me. I said that I was not much of a computer tech guy. They said that their technical expert would teach me how to do it. They mentioned that a list of internees from one of the internment camps in the south of East Turkistan was leaked, which was in Asiye’s laptop. “All you need to do is insert this USB into Asiye’s laptop. We want to catch the person who leaked the list to Asiye. Don’t worry about it.” I agreed to do it, and their technician taught me how to do it. They then gave me back my passport, and the next day they took me to the airport.
When I asked if the USB would set off the alarm at the security control, they assured me that it would not happen, emphasizing that they had tested the USB many times. They said, “Even if you don’t do it, there will be someone who will contact you.” They spent an hour or so trying to download the Chinese messaging app WeChat on my cell phone, but they failed to do so. They just told me to keep in touch with the guy in Turkey, to which I agreed.
Finally, I returned to the Netherlands, and I went straight to Asiye, telling her what had happened in Dubai. I suggested that we back up and remove all the files on her laptop, and only then do we insert the USB. We both knew that they would contact me and ask me about the assignment. We thought that it might buy us some time before figuring out a solution. However, we also realized that we needed help, so we decided to report it to the Dutch police. I was worried and anxious during that night. The next day, I went to talk to my boss and told him what had happened. I also asked him to help me send Asiye and our children to the USA for safety. My boss suggested that we either report it to the National Security Agency of the Netherlands or consult the US consulate about relocating to the US.
The National Security Agency replied positively to our concerns, informing us that we did not need to go anywhere, and that they would protect us from then on.
During that period, I received many phone calls, but I did not answer any of them. As far as I’m concerned, the Chinese regime is evil, but now I think it is worse than I thought. My boss contacted the National Security Agency, and we decided to go public with our story, which was reported by a famous journalist in the Netherlands. We knew that going public with our story would protect us.
Before our story was reported, the guy in Turkey messaged me, asking me how my assignment went. I told him that I did not get a chance to do it. I asked the reporter when the story would be published as we all were very worried the whole time.
I learned that the Chinese national security agents had harassed my mother (85 years old in 2021) multiple times during those days. They also went to talk to my elder sister, telling her, “Jasur cannot have a dual citizenship in China. He should send us a copy of his passport.” They then gave my elder sister their phone numbers. I later called them and said, “We do not give our personal information to others in the Netherlands, so I cannot give it to you unless you have an official request from the police.” Upon hearing that, they went quiet, and I hung up the phone. My local Dutch police said to me that I should stop responding to the Chinese security agents, or they would simply keep harassing me.
After having been constantly harassed, my mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice. My elder sister told me that our mother would sometimes run outside in the middle of the night and hide behind the trees. I was deeply disturbed upon hearing this heart-rending story of my mother. I believe that the Chinese security agents wanted to intimidate me by harassing my family back home, who also told my elder sister that she could not travel outside the city of Ürümchi.
We handed the USB over to the Dutch police, but they sent it to the National Intelligence and Security Agency (in the Netherlands). Around half a year later, they called Asiye and told her that there were very important items on the USB, and that they would talk to the Chinese diplomats about it. Subsequently, the USB was returned to us.
When I was in Dubai, the Chinese security agents showed me the content of the USB, which contained a video of the famous Uyghur singer Abdulla Abdurehim, who was a close friend of my mother, and a video of my mother taken by the man named Dolkun, who claimed to be a director at the Chinese National Security Agency. I have these videos on my phone as evidence.
I also have saved the following items or info as evidence: my hotel receipts, the airplane tickets, my mother’s video, and the WhatsApp number of the guy in Turkey who was in cahoots with the Chinese security agents.