Zhang Yabo, a former police officer who served in China’s Xinjiang region, has publicly detailed his involvement in the Chinese government’s extensive campaign to monitor, detain, and indoctrinate Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. Speaking before the German Bundestag in June, Zhang became visibly emotional as he described Xinjiang as a “giant prison” enclosed by an “ironclad wall” that trapped not only Uyghurs but also the officials tasked with enforcing the policies.

Zhang’s nine-year tenure in Xinjiang spanned a period during which security forces detained an estimated one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in internment camps. His account aligns with reports of systematic oppression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), offering an insider perspective on the operational realities behind the campaign.

Born in 1986 into a poor rural Han Chinese family in Henan province, Zhang moved to Xinjiang in 2006 for college and initially worked as a mathematics teacher in a rural primary school. Seeking better financial prospects, he transitioned in late 2014 to a position as a detention center guard in the Hotan region, where Uyghurs constitute about 90 percent of the population. In this role, Zhang witnessed harsh treatment of detainees, including beatings and sleep deprivation, as well as the collection of incriminating information.

In 2016, Zhang joined the police force as part of the government’s ramped-up security measures under Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party secretary appointed to Xinjiang. Leaked CCP documents later revealed a directive to detain individuals exhibiting “symptoms” of religious extremism or dissent, such as wearing long beards or praying. Zhang personally took part in raids on Uyghur homes to confiscate religious materials, recalling that he believed the detainees posed a threat, reflecting the indoctrination he had received.

Throughout 2017, Zhang was involved in transporting hundreds to thousands of detainees in bus convoys across Xinjiang, noting the poor treatment of prisoners during the journeys. He later oversaw Uyghur laborers sent to pick cotton, whose daily routine entailed early mornings, long travel to fields, and late returns to dormitories, with strict prohibitions on prayer and attempts to flee.

Zhang’s experience also highlights the personal toll of enforcing such policies. He described fear of punishment, exhaustion from long shifts, and harassment by superiors. After seeking asylum in Germany last summer, Zhang said Chinese authorities froze his bank accounts, labeled him a traitor, and harassed his family.

While Zhang accepts responsibility for his role, he also identifies himself as a victim of the system, describing the emotional and psychological burden carried by those involved in Xinjiang’s security apparatus. His testimony underscores the complexities of complicity within authoritarian regimes, where upward mobility often comes at the expense of ethical compromise.

China rejects allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, maintaining that the internment facilities were vocational training centers intended to counter terrorism and religious extremism, and asserts that these centers were closed in 2019.

Zhang concluded his Bundestag remarks by emphasizing the importance of speaking out. “If you stay silent,” he said, “you’re part of the problem,” highlighting the moral imperative he now embraces following his departure from Xinjiang’s security forces.