As many Western governments and human rights organizations, including the United States, condemn the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and the Chinese Communist Party claims that the Western community is hyping the issue, an American who lived in Xinjiang for 12 years tells of his experience of knowing nothing about Xinjiang, falling in love with it, and finally being expelled by the Chinese Communist Party and forced to leave.
According to the Voice of America, Summers is a native Texan and Christian. He traveled to Xinjiang with his wife in 2006, where they first worked as English teachers at a school in Karamay and then settled in Urumqi. But after living in Xinjiang for 12 years, they were expelled from Xinjiang by the Chinese Communist Party in 2018.
Summers, who speaks fluent Chinese, says he didn’t speak a word of Chinese before going to Xinjiang and knew nothing about it. Now, however, out of his love for Xinjiang’s culture, he has started a travel website about Xinjiang, introducing his life and travels there, and has created a Youtube video introducing Xinjiang’s customs and natural beauty to Western readers and viewers.
Summers says, “I love the diversity of cultures in Xinjiang – the diversity of ethnicities, the diversity of food, the diversity of species. All of that made my life there very interesting.”
He describes how, although he is a Christian, Xinjiang’s Muslim culture has also embraced him well. However, by July 5, 2009, hundreds of Uighurs took to the streets in Urumqi, Xinjiang, originally to demand that the government properly deal with the killing of Uighurs in a coastal factory, which turned into a riot and bloody clashes that lasted for many days. In the aftermath, Communist authorities blamed the incident on “extremism, separatism and terrorism” and subsequently began to maintain stability in Xinjiang.
Before 2009, the Uighurs were very hospitable, but that has changed since then,” Summers said. They were still friendly, but they were wary of me. Later I found out that many of my friends were harassed by the authorities because of their contact with me.”
Summers said that by 2016, he felt more of an escalation of various surveillance and restrictive measures. He said, “It started out in very small places and eventually it was that I had to go through 12 sets of cameras to get from the bus station to my residence in Urumqi. By the time I left Xinjiang, there were police posts about every 100 to 300 meters, and checkpoints on the street where police would check cell phones.”
Summers recalled one time when his phone suddenly didn’t work and he went to consult his cell phone carrier, who told him to go directly to the local police station. His phone was restored to normal after the local police station told him to delete all the apps on his phone, such as WhatsApp, Skype and VPN.
He said he was always under suspicion in Xinjiang. I always had to defend myself for things I didn’t do, and Uyghurs probably feel the same way,” he said …… And the enforcement of various checks and controls in Xinjiang is relatively lax when it comes to the Han Chinese.”
He said, “If seven people pass through a checkpoint, three Uighurs, three Han Chinese and one foreigner, then the three Uighurs and the foreigner will be called aside and the three Han Chinese will be allowed to pass straight through. This happens all the time.”
By 2017, Summers noticed that some of his Uyghur friends began to “disappear.” “I know some of them were sent to re-education camps,” he said.
Reports from the U.S. government and human rights groups say that since 2017, at least 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have been put into re-education camps “where they are tortured and persecuted and subjected to forced labor.”
Summers said, “I know from my personal experience how I was treated by the Chinese Communist authorities. I, as a foreigner, was treated much better than the local Uighur population. I can imagine their difficult situation, I can imagine how they feel: if I want my son to have any future, I have to live with my mouth shut; if I want my wife to be safe, I have to live with my head down.”
Summers and his wife were expelled by Communist authorities in 2018, and most of his words and footage show Xinjiang in a positive light. In addition, CCTV’s English channel interviewed him two years ago and filmed a feature report on his 10 years in Xinjiang. He said, “I think the Chinese Communist authorities probably thought that I was sort of a journalist by wandering around a lot with a camera and writing, and they looked uncomfortable, so they told us explicitly to leave.”
Summers said he doesn’t care much about politics and would prefer to see former friends than the various current discussions about Xinjiang. Because the couple left China, they voluntarily severed all ties with Xinjiang and have never contacted their friends there again. Summers said, “Didn’t want to get them into trouble.”
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