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Radio Free<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s because 41-year-old Sayragul Sauytbay has testified about the existence of a network of \u201creeducation camps\u201d in western China where she says thousands of ethnic Kazakhs are incarcerated for \u201cpolitical indoctrination.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike others who\u2019ve fled abroad, saying they\u2019d been forced to endure dehumanizing indoctrination<\/a><\/strong> at such camps, Sauytbay was not a camp detainee. She was a camp employee.<\/p>\n Before crossing into Kazakhstan on April 5, Sauytbay had been the head administrator of a kindergarten \u2014 a position that, together with her membership of the Communist Party, technically made her a Chinese state official.<\/p>\n She says Chinese authorities had forced her to train \u201cpolitical ideology\u201d instructors for reeducation camps in western China\u2019s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.<\/p>\n That, she says, gave her access to secret documents about China\u2019s state program to \u201creeducate\u201d Muslims from indigenous minority communities across western China \u2014 mainly Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and Hui.<\/p>\n She says she also witnessed the inner workings of the program while employed at a camp for ethnic Kazakhs in the region\u2019s Mongol-Kuro District.<\/p>\n Insider\u2019s View<\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n \u201cIn China, they call it a \u2018political camp.\u2019 Officially, this is a training center where people study Chinese ideology. But inreality, it\u2019s a prison in the mountains,\u201d Sauytbay told the Panfilov District Court in eastern Kazakhstan, which will decide whether she is sent back to China.<\/p>\n \u201cThey took me there to work at one camp in 2018,\u201d Sauytbay testified to the court in the border town of Zharkent on July 13. \u201cIt was a political camp for ethnic Kazakhs. There were only ethnic Kazakhs while I was there. \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cI was told there were two other camps like this [for ethnic Kazakhs] in the area,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were 2,500 people where I was. And I know that in the region there are other camps\u201d with Muslims from other minority communities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that I\u2019ve arrived in Kazakhstan and am talking in court about the camps, the number of people there, and their ethnicities is considered a disclosure of state secrets\u201d in China, she told the Kazakh court \u2014 adding that she expects \u201cthe most extreme\u201d punishment if she is deported there.<\/p>\n Sauytbay also testified that ethnic Kazakhs are sentenced to death in western China on mere suspicion of a crime \u2014 noting the execution of one ethnic Kazakh woman for the \u201cillegal transfer of information to Kazakhstan\u201d after she\u2019d sent video of a flag-raising ceremony in China to her relatives in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n Two Chinese diplomats attending Sauytbay\u2019s trial refused to answer RFE\/RL\u2019s questions about the case or respond to her testimony.<\/p>\n Chinese officials deny the existence of \u201creeducation camps.\u201d But authorities in Beijing do say they are fighting against \u201cthree forces\u201d within western China\u2019s minority Muslim communities \u2013 separatism, Islamic extremism, and terrorism.<\/p>\n Growing Evidence<\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n Laura Stone, the U.S. acting deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said in April that at least \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of people have been detained in western China and sent to the \u201creeducation\u201d centers.<\/p>\n Independent human rights groups have estimated that more than 1 million detainees are in or have passed through reeducation camps in the region.<\/p>\n Most are thought to be from China\u2019s indigenous minority Muslim communities.<\/p>\n A study in May<\/a><\/strong> by Adrian Zenz at the Germany-based European School of Culture and Theology found online advertisements by the Chinese government seeking contractors to build or upgrade facilities across Xinjiang that would fit with the reeducation campaign.<\/p>\n Zenz\u2019s study concluded that China has spent well over $100 million to build new camps in the traditionally Muslim region since 2016, when a new regional party chief arrived from Tibet and expanded a decades-old crackdown on Uyghurs into draconian controls against all of Xinjing\u2019s minority Muslim communities.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the rights group China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said in a study this week that Chinese government data shows that nearly 228,000 people were arrested on criminal charges in 2017 in Xinjiang under the new restrictions on religion.<\/p>\n The CHRD notes that China\u2019s legal system has a conviction rate of over 99.9 percent, which guarantees that almost all indictments end in a conviction.<\/p>\n Radio Free Asia has reported on the incarceration of Xinjiang\u2019s ethnic Kazakhs<\/a><\/strong> at reeducation centers since 2017, as well as Kazakh citizens<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe authorities force the detainees to accept this so-called education, which is political indoctrination,\u201d Human Rights Watch China research Maya Wang told Radio Free Asia<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are forced to study Chinese characters, and anyone who challenges this arbitrary detention is punished, some physically, some by being locked up in isolation with no food or water,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n Precedent Setting<\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n The ruling expected by the Kazakh court after final arguments scheduled for August 1 will acknowledge how much credence Kazakh authorities are willing to officially give to growing evidence of the camps.<\/p>\n Sauytbay\u2019s treatment also will set a precedent on whether Kazakhstan will comply with Beijing\u2019s demands to return ethnic Kazakh Chinese citizens, or whether Astana is prepared to challenge its giant neighbor in order to protect ethnic Kazakhs who flee China.<\/p>\n So far, Astana\u2019s official response to complaints and the camps has appeared tepid, at best, with the Foreign Ministry saying in May that it had urgently requested<\/a><\/strong> \u201can objective and fair review of affairs and the release of those ethnic Kazakhs detained in China who have dual citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n