A Woman’s Journey Through China’s Detention Camps

<p>A last-minute booking, a furtive cab ride and a spy in the window. For the past year, Paul Mozur has been investigating the story of a son determined to free his mother from a repressive system of detention and surveillance in western China. In doing so, he found a crack in China’s surveillance state — and a mother on her deathbed in Xinjiang.</p><p>Today, we hear from the man’s mother for the first time. </p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/paul-mozur" target="_blank">Paul Mozur</a>, a technology reporter for The New York Times based in Shanghai, spoke with Ferkat Jawdat, a Uighur who is an American citizen and lives in Virginia, and his mother in Xinjiang, China. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. </p><p>Background reading:</p><ul><li>The Chinese authorities are using a<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html" target="_blank"> vast secret system of facial recognition technology to control the Uighurs</a>, a largely Muslim minority in western China. The government<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/business/china-dna-uighurs-xinjiang.html" target="_blank"> may also be taking citizens’ DNA</a> without consent to enhance the system.</li><li>“We must be as harsh as them, and show absolutely no mercy.”<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html" target="_blank"> Leaked documents reveal</a> how the Chinese authorities orchestrated the crackdown on one million or more ethnic Uighurs.</li><li>If you missed our previous interviews with Mr. Jawdat, here are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/podcasts/the-daily/china-xinjiang-uighur-detention.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/podcasts/the-daily/china-uighurs-internment-camps-surveillance.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a>.</li></ul>