It was an incredible moment: a mainland girl crying and apologizing to a Uyghur lady who was oppressed by the Chinese Communist authorities, witnessed by me and more than 1000 other listeners.
It happened last Sunday morning (Feb. 7). I entered a chat room on Clubhouse, a newly launched audio social App. The audio chat platform, currently available by invitation only, allows users to create virtual chat rooms, with each “room” able to connect up to 5,000 speakers and listeners.
In the chat room, a Uyghur woman told listeners about her Parents‘ experiences in Xinjiang when they were sent to a re-Education camp.
Next, a girl who identified herself as coming from another part of mainland China spoke up.
She was crying emotionally and could not stop herself. The only words I heard were “I’m sorry.
Recent studies show that China has been expanding its detention facilities for Uighurs. (Maxar Via Google Earth)
She apologized to the Uyghur woman who spoke quietly about her experience – not only for what happened to the Uyghur Family, but also for her inability to do anything about it as a Han Chinese.
It was the first Time I had heard an ordinary person from mainland China talk to a Uyghur in a large public exchange.
What was even more incredible was that together, in tears, they told each other to encourage each other and to unite.
Over the next few hours, thousands of listeners heard different voices from the Xinjiang region, and even some Han Chinese from the area told what they had learned about the re-education camps.
Communist authorities have repeatedly stated that these facilities are vocational training centers or “boarding schools” that are essential to prevent “extremism” and “terrorism.
Many of the speakers in this chat room identified themselves as students, architects, lawyers, and even a self-proclaimed member of the Chinese Communist Party who described having visited one of the camps.
I couldn’t help but shed a tear as I listened to them explore this topic from different perspectives.
Of course, this controversial topic also sparked some confrontation. But one by one, the speakers spoke during the nearly 12-hour discussion, creating a strong atmosphere of reconciliation between these two peoples.
It was the first time I had witnessed a dialogue that took place in China but was not censored by the authorities.
The app quickly attracted thousands of tech enthusiasts, some from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China, and some overseas Chinese or International Students.
But just on Monday (Feb. 8), the inevitable happened anyway – China’s censors took action. Soon, many users in mainland China reported that it was blocked and unable to log in.
Uighurs feel “relieved”
Dr. Halmurat Harri, a Uighur in Finland, has been collecting testimonies in recent years to help Uighurs who have relatives identified as being held in Chinese detention camps.
Harri, a Uighur in Finland, said he was heartened by the discussion in Clubhouse. (Supplied)
As one of the hosts of the chat room, Hari shares his own experiences and answers questions for people hearing about the Xinjiang detention camps for the first time.
Hari said his parents were detained from 2017 to late 2018. Referring to Sunday’s conversation, he described it as “poignant” and “shocking.
“I never thought this moment could come so quickly …… despite the risks,” Hari told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“It’s the first time [I’ve heard] a Chinese-speaking person in a chat room at …… say ‘I’m Han Chinese and I’m sorry. I want to express myself to empathize with you and stand with you’.
“I was shocked, a positive kind of shock …… for over an hour, and I heard over and over again so many Chinese voices from all over the world.”
Just after Hari’s parents disappeared, he has been campaigning on social media in an effort to gather testimonies and compile a list of detainees in order to demand a response from the Chinese Communist authorities.
As he recounted the heartbreaking experience of searching for his parents, dozens of messages of support flooded his private Instagram and Twitter feeds.
“They said ‘Please don’t blame us, we’re on your side,'” Hari said.
“This moment will not be lost in time.”
A “space” with freedom of expression
First launched last April, the Clubhouse app is currently available only on Apple’s iOS, and its user base is growing slowly because users can only sign up for an account by invitation code.
The audio social app Clubhouse was blocked in China on Monday. (Reuters: Florence Lo/Illustration)
Once a user has successfully registered for an account, he or she can invite two other people to sign up. The number of users of the app has risen sharply in recent weeks following the presence of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg on the platform.
Users can talk or listen to others in a live chat room, but cannot send or receive text messages. The app has reportedly been downloaded at least 2 million times and is rapidly gaining popularity in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
While the app appears to have given some people a taste of long-lost freedom of speech, the Global Times, an official Chinese tabloid, published a report Monday saying the app is not “a haven for free speech.
The Global Times said some “mainland Chinese users” find political discussions on the app “often one-sided, and pro-China voices are easily silenced.”
The newspaper cited one man’s experience of participating in discussions on Taiwan who found that people “just repeated their views rather than exploring or criticizing the debate.
But for many young people on the mainland, it was the first time they were able to talk openly about sensitive topics, from the Tiananmen Square massacre to the democracy movement in Hong Kong to cross-strait relations.
They not only discussed politics, but also openly explored topics such as gender and sexual orientation, and of course exchanged views on the Chinese government’s suppression of press freedom and the imposition of Internet censorship.
While some users in different rooms expressed how much they valued every moment of listening and speaking, some were concerned that the app would be censored.
Some said they didn’t want to go to bed for fear of waking up the next day and having the app blocked, while others said their belief system in government was “broken.
“The excitement of entering a free speech environment”
Taiwanese online blogger and citizen journalist Shuguang Zhou, known as Zuola on social media, has set up a chat room on Clubhouse that has lasted more than 170 hours with the help of volunteers from around the world.
Zuola hopes to keep the conversations in the chat room going until the Lunar New Year. (Supplied)
Zola moved to Taiwan from mainland China ten years ago and received Taiwanese citizenship last year. While the Chinese Communist government considers Taiwan a breakaway province on the mainland, Taiwanese authorities consider themselves independent.
On Tuesday afternoon, Zola publicly interviewed two researchers from Amnesty International on the Clubhouse app.
“I have a sense of the excitement of people entering a free speech environment after having endured a long period of repression and blockade,” Zola told ABC.
“These days, mainland Chinese, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese and other overseas Chinese are communicating peacefully and rationally through this software.”
In one popular chat room, several Beijing residents shared their experiences during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
In another chat room, speakers who identified themselves as students and democracy activists described their experiences of being watched by police and “invited to tea.
As I listened in the Tiananmen chat room, the Communist Party’s censorship machine suddenly went into action.
Hundreds of users dropped out of the chat room where they seemed to be discussing CCP issues almost instantaneously.
At first, many thought there was a problem with Clubhouse’s servers until some users who returned to the room said they were able to log in with the help of a virtual private network (VPN).
“With no ‘wall,’ they were using the same language, talking freely and hugging each other,” Zola told ABC after the app was blocked by the Chinese government.
“But in the blink of an eye, the wall is back in place blocking people on both sides.”
The ABC has contacted the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign ministry and Clubhouse for comment.
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