Hong Kong's Further Shrinking Press Freedoms

The BBC World Service will not be carried by RTHK anymore

 

Last week the UK revoked the broadcasting license of China Global Television Network (CGTN), after it said the state-owned broadcaster was run by the Chinese Communist Party and therefore violated British laws.

That led to Bejiing banning the BBC World Service "within Chinese territory" for what it called "serious content violations" following an explosive report on sexual assault of Uyghur women in "vocational training centres" that many critics say are internment camps.

The BBC report says Uyghur women were raped

Just hours after that announcement, Radio Television Hong Kong followed suit with an announcement this morning, which led to an outcry that press freedom is further deteriorating in the city.

RTHK stopped broadcasting BBC's World Service and News Weekly as of 11pm tonight, though other TV networks like TVB, Now TV and Cable TV said they would continue offering programs by the UK-based broadcaster.

Previously RTHK aired BBC World Service daily from 11pm to 7am, and the Cantonese-language radio show BBC News Weekly every Sunday at 7am. It was not clear what the programing would be replaced with.

The head of the University of Hong Kong's journalism and media studies centre, Keith Richburg, says it's "surprising" that RTHK has pulled the plug on its live relay of BBC World Service.

Richburg questions RTHK's decision on BBC

"Hong Kong is supposedly still autonomous, first of all, And so a decision like this seems to have been something that would have been ordered either by the Hong Kong government for RTHK or coming from the top from China and relayed to RTHK," he said.

"We really kind of need to get to the background of how that decision was made and made so quickly as well. People would be very very curious to know what the decision-making process was behind that."

Meanwhile, the RTHK Programme Staff Union called on the broadcaster and the relevant government bureau to explain the decision.

In a statement, the union says under One Country, Two Systems, it has never heard of other examples when Hong Kong has to follow instructions by the mainland's broadcasting regulator.

It noted that RTHK has been relaying BBC World Service for more than four decades, and it's a pity that the arrangement has come to an end.

RTHK's move follows Beijing's decision

Finally in a written statement, RTHK cited Beijing's decision as the reason for its move, while a spokeswoman said the decision was made within the broadcaster's management.

"The decision was made among RTHK management, and concerned heads of sections were informed this morning," said Echo Wai Pui-man, head of corporate communications and standards at RTHK.

So it seems the decision was political in following Beijing's lead. Will this affect how other foreign media outlets operate in Hong Kong? 

Richburg now knows where the city stands... behind Beijing.

China's Verbal Joust with Canada

 Cong warns Canada about taking Hong Kong asylum seekers

 

The 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and China was marked by a war of words sparked by Cong Peiwu, the Chinese ambassador to Canada.

He urged Canada not to accept people from Hong Kong who participated in last year's anti-government protests, describing them as "violent criminals". Cong also warned that accepting these people would jeopardize the "health and safety" of 300,000 Canadians who live in Hong Kong.

When asked by the media if this was a threat, Cong replied, "That is your interpretation."

How is that not a threat?

Over 9,000 people were arrested last year

Cong went on to say: "We strongly urge the Canadian side not to grant so-called political asylum to those violent criminals in Hong Kong, because it interferes in China's domestic affairs, and certainly it will embolden those violent criminals," he said.

This is strange logic -- wouldn't China be happy to see so-called "violent criminals" move to another country so Hong Kong will be "safer"?

In any event so far the number of actual convictions of protesters has a very low success rate in the courts, so his description of last year's participants as "violent criminals" is overblown.

Canada has accepted at least two activists from Hong Kong, granting them protection as early as September. There are apparently 45 people waiting for approval.

The Chinese envoy warned of further consequences if Canada accepted more Hong Kong asylum seekers.

"If the Canadian side really cares about the stability and the prosperity in Hong Kong, and really cares about the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport holders in Hong Kong and the large number of Canadian companies operating in Hong Kong... you should support those efforts to fight violent crimes," he said.

Champagne says Cong's words were "disturbing"

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne later called Cong's statements inappropriate.

"The reported comments by the Chinese ambassador are totally unacceptable and disturbing," the minister said in a statement.

"I have instructed Global Affairs to call the Ambassador in to make clear in no uncertain terms that Canada will always stand up for human rights and the rights of Canadians around the world."

Interesting Champagne did not summon Cong for a dressing down, which would have made for good political theatre.

In any event, the ambassador also lashed out, saying China would have a "strong reaction" if Canada's Parliament were to pass any resolution that condemned China's treatment of Uyghurs as "genocide". 

Uyghurs in an "education training centre"

According to experts studying what is going on in Xinjiang, China's westernmost province, over 1 million Uyghurs have been forcibly living in detention camps since 2017, though the Chinese government has called them "vocational and education training centres". 

"We will take resolute measures to safeguard our sovereignty and national security," Cong said. He rejected widespread allegations that genocide is happening in Xinjiang, saying Uyghurs "live in harmony ... and [China's] human-rights record is the best in history."

His words are so amazingly false, when there are many testimonies from exiled Uyghurs who have given first-hand accounts of their experiences in these camps, as well as loved ones who haven't heard from their parents, brothers, sisters and other relatives for months or years. And when they finally emerge, they are a shadow of their former selves.

There are also statistics the birth rate in Xinjiang has plunged after academic Adrian Zenz published a report that found the number of sterilizations in the province surged from almost 250 per 100,000 people in 2018 from 50 per 100,000 in 2016. Zenz says this follows the United Nations' definition of genocide.

Michael Kovrig (left) and Michael Spavor

As for the detentions of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, Cong insisted there was no "coercive diplomacy on the Chinese side", even though the two were detained soon after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested on a US extradition request.

Canada is finally taking a firmer stand with China, but it really needs to have its ducks lined up in order to play hardball with Beijing. China has a lot of diplomatic tactics up its sleeve, and Ottawa needs to be ready to hit back.

Eradicating a "Mental Illness"

Uighurs coming out of Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, Xinjiang

 The Chinese government is spinning the incarceration of Uighurs in detention centres in Xinjiang,  saying their belief in Islam needs to be treated as a mental illness. As a result they need to be treated multiple times, not just once, and for months at a time.

That's the latest report from The Atlantic, that also says some one million people are being sent to these "reeducation camps" where they are forced to sing propaganda songs and learn Mandarin, and some media reports have even talked about forcing these ethnic minority Muslims to eat pork and drink alcohol.

While the authorities describe the camps are "schools", they are also being described as "hospitals".

Women waking down the street in Kashgar

In a WeChat message to Uighurs, an excerpt of an official Communist Party audio recording says:

Members of the public who have been chosen for reeducation have been infected by an ideological illness. They have been infected with religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology, and therefore they must seek treatment from a hospital as an inpatient... The religious extremist ideology is a type of poisonous medicine, which confuses the mind of the people... If we do not eradicate religious extremism at its roots, the violent terrorist incidents will grow and spread all over like an incurable malignant tumour.

Sounds serious doesn't it? Except the message is making assumptions about people's devotion to their religion.

By calling religious extremism an "ideological illness", it gives the government (in its mind) the moral authority to lock people up for months at a time, and as many as it warrants is necessary.

Police officers have confirmed to Radio Free Asia that they have been ordered to meet specific population quotas in rounding up people for these camps. In one township, 40 percent of the local population was locked up.

"It's being treated as a mental illness that's never guaranteed to be completely cured, like addiction or depression," says Timothy Grose, a China expert at the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. "There's something mentally wrong that needs to be diagnosed, treated -- and followed up with."

The above mentioned recording from the Communist Party justifies the need for continual treatment:

There is always a risk that the illness will manifest itself at any moment, which would cause serious harm to the public. that is why they must be admitted to a reeducation hospital in time to treat and cleanse the virus from their brain and restore their normal mind... Being infected by religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology and not seeking treatment is like being infected by a disease that has not been treated in time, or like taking toxic drugs... There is no guarantee that it will not trigger and affect you in the future.

There are intimidating police patrols around Xinjiang

Having gone through reeducation and recovered form the ideological disease doesn't mean that one is permanently cured... So, after completing the reeducation process in the hospital and returning home... they must remain vigilant, empower themselves with the correct knowledge, strengthen their ideological studies, and actively attend various public activities to bolster their immune system.

Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the European School of Culture and Theology in Germany equates what is going on in Xinjiang with how the government dealt with Falun Gong practitioners in the early 2000s by reeducating them in labour camps.

"Falun Gong was also treated like a dangerous addiction... But in Xinjiang this [rhetoric] is certainly being pushed to the next level," he says. "The explicit link with the addictive effect of religion is being emphasized possibly in an unprecedented way."

US-based Uighur academic from Xinjiang Tahir Imin isn't surprised by the government equating Islam with mental illness. He believes this is the authorities' way of eradicating ethnic Muslim minorities and forcing them to assimilate with the Han Chinese.

In the end this is the government's way of dealing with extremists -- by eradicating what it thinks is religious extremism through extreme power.

China on the Defensive on Xinjiang

China claims people's rights and freedoms in Xinjiang are respected...

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva put some tough questions to the Chinese delegation led by Hu Lianhe of China's United Front Work Department.

As expected, his written statement were answers with Chinese characteristics.

He started off by saying: "The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region always respects and guarantees the human rights of people of all ethnic groups, and protects the freedoms and rights of citizens of all ethnic groups in accordance with the law and on an equal footing."

An excerpt from Hu Lianhe's statement to the UN

Has Hu ever been to Xinjiang, more specifically Kashgar, the westernmost city in China?

OK never mind.

He goes on to say: "People of all ethnic groups live and work in peace and contentment, and their freedom of religious belief are fully guaranteed. There is no arbitrary detention or lack of freedom of religious belief. The view that Xinjiang is a 'no rights zone' is completely against the fact."

Again, he is counting on the fact that the vast majority of people on the planet have never been to Xinjiang.

"There are no such things as 're-education centers' or 'counter-terrorism training centers' in Xinjiang," Hu continues in his lengthy statement. He points out it is China who is the victim of terrorism and so to safeguard residents, Xinjiang has executed a number of "special campaigns to crack down on violent terrorist activities according to the law" and imprisoned a number of criminals accused of terrorism.

He says those who have committed minor offenses are sent to "vocational education and employment training centers to acquire employment skills and legal knowledge, with a view to assisting in their rehabilitation and reintegration".

Security is tight all over Xinjiang, with numerous checkpoints

Singing patriotic songs and denouncing Islam are considered vocational training?

Hu also denied the UN estimate that 1 million Muslims of various ethnicities, including Uighurs and Kazakhs were being held in these centres.

Meanwhile the tabloid Global Times published editorials in English and Chinese, saying increased security was necessary to avoid the region from becoming another Syria, adding criticism of the rights record in Xinjiang was aimed at stirring trouble there and destroying hard-earned stability.

"The turnaround in Xinjiang's security situation has avoided a great tragedy and saved countless lives, thanks to powerful Chinese law and the strong ruling power of the Communist Party of China," the paper wrote.

China says it is a victim of terrorism, hence the security

"There is no doubt that the current peace and stability in Xinjiang is partly due to the high intensity of regulations. Police and security posts can be seen everywhere in Xinjiang."

Xinjiang has, "no room for destructive Western public opinions" that have destroyed numerous countries and regions," the Global Times said. "When the same evil influence was spreading in Xinjiang, it was decisively curbed."

Hu's response is classic CPC. Perhaps he will be promoted for standing up to those "western devils".

But the most important thing is the spotlight is shining on this area in China that has up until recently gone without much attention for years. 

However, will this make things worse for Uighurs in China? We can only hope not...

1 Million Held in Xinjiang Indoctrination Camps

More evidence of how Uighurs and Muslims are mistreated by China

For about a year, there have been dozens of news reports about Uighurs being "disappeared" into detention camps. Some told of how they were forcibly indoctrinated to sing patriotic songs about China, learn about Chinese law, brush up on their Mandarin, and denounce Islam, and Muslim culture.

And then last month a Kazakh-Chinese woman testified in a court in Kazakhstan about illegally entering the country. Sayragul Sauytbay, 41, testified she escaped a "reeducation camp", one of many that are holding thousands of ethnic Kazakhs for "political indoctrination".

Interestingly she was not a camp detainee. Before she fled to Kazakhstan, Sauytbay had been the head administrator of a kindergarten -- a position that, together with her membership in the Communist Party, technically made her a Chinese state official.

Sayragul Sautybay testifying to avoid deportation to China

She said Chinese authorities forced her to train "political ideology" instructors for reeducation camps in Xinjiang. As a result she had access to secret documents about China's plan to "reeducate" Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgz and Hui who are Muslims.

A few days ago the court ruled she would not be deported to China and Sauytubay is applying for asylum in Kazakhstan.

And now a UN human rights committee has heard there are credible reports that China is holding 1 million Uighurs in "counter-extremism centres".

Gay McDougall, a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, said she was concerned by reports that Beijing had "turned the Uighur autonomous region into something that resembled a massive internment camp".

China claims it needs to keep the country safe from extremists

Beijing has previously denied the existence of these camps.

If there really are 1 million people being held in these camps, that's a number that's way beyond what others have reported.

While the UN may bring up these claims and ask Beijing to respond, it will probably deny them as much as possible, or the very least claim they are necessary to contain these people from the rest of the population for security reasons and cite terrorism.

Another issue related to Muslims in China is in Ningxia Hui autonomous region, where hundreds of them are protesting to prevent a newly-built mosque from being demolished.

Hundreds held a tense stand off at Weizhou Grand Mosque

Officials said the Weizhou Grand Mosque had not been given proper building permits, but so far the protestors have been able to prevent the authorities from trying to modify it to put Chinese-style pagodas.

This tense standoff is still continuing, and one hopes it doesn't end in violence.

The irony is that China likes to pride itself with having 55 ethnic minorities and yet it doesn't respect their freedom to worship their religion or practice their traditions.

No ID, No Subway Ride in Urumqi

Some passengers got to try out the new subway in Urumqi yesterday

Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang will have its first metro system up and running by the end of the year and already the government has stated that Uyghurs need to produce their identification cards before they can buy tickets.

This is in addition to other regulations that Uyghurs need to produce their ID when buying train tickets and long-distance bus rides (since last March).

If you are caught using someone else's ID card, you can be fined between 50 to 200 yuan (US$7.90-$31.70).

Uyghurs need to show ID to buy subway tickets

Maya Wang, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, says the requirement is "part of an ever tightening web of surveillance and control in Xinjiang".

The government claims violence is rooted from Islamic extremists and separatists, but Uyghur advocates say it's the government's repression of religious freedom and unfair ethnic policies in the region that have resulted in resentment and violence.

Han Chinese authorities have been increasing security and surveillance measures throughout the region since 2016, including thousands of newly installed street-corner police stations.

These days Urumqi residents often have to provide their ID or undergo facial scans at the city's numerous security check points.

"Think of how many checkpoints an Urumqi resident must go through every day," Wang says. "And you are already required to use your real name for intra-city travel."

Security continues to be very strict in Xinjiang

All this monitoring using the latest technology coupled with heavy policing has resulted in what critics describe as a "massive police state".

It's so extreme that in some stations, no liquid, not even water is allowed, according to one resident who wished to remain anonymous.

"I think everyone is already mentally prepared for how strict the subways will be," he said.

It really doesn't have to be this extreme, but the heightened security measures in that region just make tensions between Han Chinese and Uyghurs even worse. When will the mistrust end?

China's Evolving Definition of Human Rights

Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia suffered human rights violations

With the year ending in just over two weeks, China has already hailed 2017 as one of "remarkable" progress in human rights, including its achievements in anti-corruption and legal reform, which don't have much, if anything to do with human rights.

The latest State Council white paper listed international cooperation on counterterrorism and climate change, as well as the "Sky Net" program to hunt down and repatriate fugitives accused of corruption as human rights achievements.

So forcibly bringing back people to stand for corruption charges is a good thing for human rights?

In the past China has included the right to peace, and the right to economic development.

Migrant workers are being forced out of Beijing

How random and irrelevant to consider these under the meaning of human rights (everywhere else).

Many international critics focused on the detention and death in custody of Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo and how he was only briefly reunited with his wife Liu Xia before he died of cancer in July. Afterwards his body was hastily cremated and the ashes dumped at sea to avoid some kind of memorial for democracy activists.

His widow is still closely watched by the authorities and her whereabouts are still unknown. Doesn't she have human rights?

There are also human rights violations in pushing migrant workers out of Beijing on the pretense of a fire in Daxing District on November 18 that killed 19 people. Following the fire, the authorities immediately launched a 40-day campaign to get rid of the "low-end population", a word that has since been banned from China's cyberspace.

Migrant workers who provide essential services or do jobs that no one else wants to do are being pushed out of the Chinese capital with very little notice and the experience has been so harsh and violent that they don't feel welcome anymore and have no choice but to go back to their hometowns.

Uyghurs' DNA are now being collected by the police

Did the authorities realize what effect this vicious campaign will have on how the city will function from now on?

But another shocking human rights violation is a recent report from The Guardian that says DNA, fingerprints and other biometric data are being collected from Uyghurs in a "health check", called "Physicals for All". It is unclear if patients are aware this data is being collected and shared with the police.

"The mandatory databanking of a whole population's biodata, including DNA, is a gross violation of international human rights norms," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. It is even more disturbing if it is done surreptitiously, under the guise of a free healthcare program.

"Xinjiang authorities should rename their physical exams project 'Privacy Violations for All', as informed consent and real choice does not seem to be part of these programs," she added.

However, China is ignoring its critics and continuing this terrifying project -- even if someone hasn't committed a crime.

So when China says it's had a "remarkable" year in human rights, it really is living in a parallel universe where its definition is so far removed from everyone else's.

What it's Like to be Disappeared

This latest book details experiences in detention

A new book has been published in English and Chinese that offers more insight into what it's like to "be disappeared" by the Chinese authorities.

Called The People's Republic of the Disappeared, the book is compiled by Safeguard Defenders, a group founded in August to protect those in Asia who fight for human rights, women's rights and civil society.

In it are 12 accounts from people who have experienced first hand what it's like to be disappeared into what were previously nicknamed "black jails", or "secret detention centres" where the rule of law does not apply.

Tang Jitian tells of having to give military salutes his captors

This was allowed to happen after Article 73 of China's Criminal Procedure Law was amended in 2012 so that authorities could detain people for reasons of "state security" or "terrorism". Detainees can be held as long as six months in "designated locations", or secret prisons.

Anyone who is considered to be critical of the government or a political threat to the leadership is rounded up -- from lawyers, dissidents and activists to Tibetans and Uyghurs.

Of the 12 accounts, some are anonymous, others attributed to people who live outside of China, or some brave souls within the country willing to stick their necks out. They only represent a tiny sliver of the thousands of people who are are subjected to this kind of treatment daily.

The first-hand accounts talk about being forced to sit on a chair and not move for hours on end staring at the wall in front of them, being forced to do military salutes to their captors as a sign of submission, being deprived of sleep for days on end, and being in solitary confinement.

One defense lawyer, Tang Jitian, writes that despite the cruel physical and mental treatment he suffered in 2011, his captors were unable to break his spirit.

"Their purpose was to break my determination, to make me accept their power. They sometimes used this kind of military training on detainees they don't like. The armed police in China have strong bodies, but very simple minds," Tang writes.

Tang Zhishun believes people will have their comeuppance

Tang Zhishun, an engineer turned activist, was also disappeared for more than a year in detention.

He reflects back on his experience with a hint of optimism.

"The policemen would say they held no personal grudge against me, but they acted with such cruelty, tortured me the way they did, as if knowing that it was not personal would somehow change anything. I believe justice comes for everyone one day, and those who have done wrong will get the punishment they deserve."

These survivors refuse to have their spirits broken by this extralegal arrangement and are determined to continue fighting. Wonder what the authorities will think of next...

Silk Road: Unsettling Security Measures

People walking by a security truck in the hospital compound days before Oct 1

 Being in Kashgar is unsettling.

The first thing you notice are the sirens that are constantly going off. That's because there are police vans with riot screens driving up and down the main streets at around 20km an hour. As we drove by one, I could see the driver so bored that he was looking at his phone placed on the steering wheel while he was driving -- he was that slow.

And then everywhere you go, from hotels to restaurants and even grocery stores and pharmacies have metal detectors you have to walk through, and some have X-ray machines for your bags, or they wand you before you can go in.

Even at the hospital we had to first show our passports, and most of the time they just waved us through. But then there was one time where the staff at the gate were difficult and told us to go to the next door police station.

We went over and explained to the young officer that we just wanted to go to the hospital to see my dad and showed him our passports. He couldn't read English and barked, "What is your name?"

My mom asked, "Do you mean my husband's name or my name?"

Police checking under the hood of a car for explosives

Your name! Don't play games with me? he barked again.

I was so taken aback I couldn't help stopping myself from saying, "Are you serious?"

Luckily he didn't take me too seriously, and we each gave him our Chinese names (which are not on our passports) and radioed to the hospital gate our names. We were then let through.

Oh yes and we had to put our bags through X-ray machines again -- in every hospital building we went into. Those who drove into the hospital compound had their cars checked -- even under the hood by men in bullet-proof vests and helmets. Security is a serious business.

The Chinese government has spent over 30 billion yuan in security last year, a jump of almost 20 percent from 2016. That's from the creation of these neighbourhood police stations and extra police hires as well as equipment.

The other curious thing is that in restaurants, diners aren't given knives, though in our hotel we were, but they were very dull. One time my dad wanted to eat a peeled apple and we asked the Uyghur teenager who was helping us to bring a knife from home.

Security checks in our hotel lobby

He apologized that he could not carry one at all. We were very surprised and expressed our incredulity. He politely said with a smile, "It's different."

We did find a plastic knife and smuggled it in, but it was challenging to peel the apple with it and I gave up after completing half of it. We stuck to grapes after that.

Uyghurs who have either a lot of interaction with foreigners or have a passport and traveled abroad are under a lot of scrutiny.

They can either be disappeared for days or weeks, or they are sent to "school", a room full of men and women from teens to people in their 60s, and they are forced to listen to lectures, learn Chinese, learn more about Chinese law, or propaganda for about two hours everyday.

It is mandatory -- they cannot skip "school" even though they have to work at that time or were planning to be out of town. If not, the consequences could be harsh.

This repression against Uyghurs is tough. Mosques are not allowed to broadcast prayers, while men cannot have very long beards, and women cannot be completely covered.

And as National Day approached, there were more police on the streets, probably part-time police officers who carried riot weapon gear like shields and batons and forks that were more of a deterrent than were actually used. The hospital was even under lock down from 11pm until morning. Is that really necessary?

There were also more check-points on the roads; taxi drivers sometimes preferred to pick up Han Chinese customers because that meant they could easily pass the check-points than be scrutinized by the police.

And by the way, the Uyghur taxi drivers would sometimes take an extra passenger if they were going the same direction as the first customer. Why not if they can make a bit more extra money? We only had one Han Chinese drive the whole time we were there.

Meanwhile, the Uyghurs we met tried to carry on with life the best they could. Women dressed up to go to the hospital, as if they were going out for dinner to a nice restaurant, while some older men wore traditional woven caps.

The Uyghurs we talked to were trying to deal with the situation with as much grace as they could under pressure. To me this was amazing, considering they know there is no way out -- it is near impossible to get a passport nowadays, let alone immigrate.

Many people outside of Kashgar have no idea what is going on here because it's so remote. However, people need to know the situation here. If Hong Kong continues to irritate Beijing, the powers that be could easily punish Hong Kong and turn it into a police state like Kashgar.

It is already happening in many major cities in China, with facial recognition software, security cameras everywhere and bags having to be scanned in every subway station. We can push back, but for how long and how much?

Silk Road: Learning From Uyghurs

In the doctor's office on the seventh floor where most are Uyghurs

Being in Kashgar for 12 days we got to know Uyghurs better than most tourists, and probably most local Han Chinese. It seemed like the two ethnic groups lived in a parallel universe, where they didn't intersect much, unless they had to work together, like in the case of the hospital.

In the neurology ward, practically all the doctors were Uyghurs, the head nurse too, while only a handful of nurses were Han Chinese. Perhaps it was because the demographic of their patients were Uyghur.

Outside the hospital Uyghurs and Han Chinese didn't have much to do with each other. They didn't eat each other's food -- Uyghurs are Muslim and only eat Halal food, and Uyghurs were forced to speak Mandarin to Han Chinese, who hardly knew any Uyghur.

Our first neighbour waiting to be discharged from the hospital

So you can imagine the taxi drivers' surprise when I would say "hello" (yakshimusiz) and "thank you" (rekhmat) in Uyghur, and to my dad's neighbour's family I would say "good bye" (hosh) and they were happy I was trying to be friendly.

There were benefits to being Han Chinese -- you were less scrutinized when it came to going through security. Uyghurs would be subjected to more thorough searches from their ID to the items they were carrying.

When my dad was in the hospital we had three different neighbours. The first was a young couple, with whom we didn't interact much, but we were cordial.

Next came an elderly man, probably younger than my, with his extended family looking after him -- his wife, sister, and daughter-in-law with her children. We spent the most time with the daughter-in-law and her young daughter Madja.

She had very short hair -- it seems young girls have their heads shaved to ensure their hair grows thicker. At first she and we were shy, but after a day or two she warmed up to us, particularly when I gave her a balloon to play with.

Madja didn't know any Mandarin, though her young mother did. She was busy looking after her father-in-law -- constantly hoisting him up, or turning his body periodically for blood circulation.

Then when we came back one evening, the family was gone and my dad had one evening of quiet. The next day another neighbour came in, another man, probably in his 30s, but by then my dad was well enough to be discharged from the hospital and we left a day or two after.

The head nurse who spoke very good Mandarin

During our time in Kashgar, our tour guide was indispensable -- he came to the hospital a few times to visit dad to see if he was OK, and helped us arrange our hotel accommodation through his tour guide friend, who also helped us exchange money, and arrange a car for us to go to the airport.

These people were so warm and hospitable despite the situation they were living in on a daily basis. They were keen to show us another side of Kashgar and we were so glad and lucky to be at the receiving end of their generosity. I won't forget them.

Rahmat (Thank you).

Silk Road: Keeping Tabs on Hospital Costs

A Uyghur sleeping on a cot in the stairwell in the hospital

From a patient's point of view, Xinjiang Kashgar First People's Hospital is very basic. You have to buy everything -- soap, paper towels, toilet paper, water, even soft pillows, tissues, anything you might need.

At first I was relieved that our shared toilet at least had soap -- but then a few days later our neighbour left and took their soap along with them! That's how we found out the hospital didn't even provide soap so that people would have clean hands to handle the patients...

A quaint-looking restaurant, but food wasn't agreeable...

My aunt told us that even when preparing for surgery, a barber came by and shaved my dad's head -- for 20 yuan (US$3). She saw the tour guide pay him, so she quickly gave money back to the tour guide.

We were also told to have someone look after my dad 24 hours a day in the hospital  -- which explained why people slept in cots like the one we were given our room, or people slept on layers of blankets on the floor anywhere. In the evenings the hospital looked like a refugee camp.

Our tour guide suggested hiring a young man to help look after my dad and it turned out he was very young -- a 17-year-old Uyghur, just graduated from high school. He was the younger brother of another tour guide and was keen to get into this line of work too.

Another relative sleeping by the elevators

In a way this was a good training ground for him, to be able to deal with a variety of situations, translating from Uyghur to English, and also knowing where to go in the hospital to get things, particularly CT scans and such.

This saved my mom and I the headache of having to run around the hospital trying to figure out where everything was, and focus on looking after my dad when we visited him.

There was also no hospital food available, nor a cafeteria. That meant having to buy food everyday. We tried a Chinese restaurant at the back of our hotel and it wasn't that hygienic.

The same could be said for the string of Uyghur restaurants in front of the hospital. My mom and I went to one of them for lunch and ordered a bowl of hand-pulled noodles with ratatouille and bits of lamb.

What arrived on our table were two bowls of lukewarm noodles. I started tucking in but then heard the sound of chopping behind me. It turns out there was a man using an axe to chop the raw meat of a carcass. My mom watched him and immediately lost her appetite and her stomach didn't feel well either.

She made the executive decision that we would only eat food from the hotel. That meant having to wait until noon for the Chinese restaurant to open for lunch to buy take out for my dad, and then going back again around 6pm for his dinner.

We saw meat chopped like this in a restaurant by the hospital

Most of the time we wouldn't eat dinner until 8pm or even 9pm. The Chinese restaurant barely had any business, or if it did, the function that evening was already over so we practically had the restaurant to ourselves.

While the tables looked nicely set from a distance, the tablecloths were never changed, and the same oil stains were there...

The menu was quite limited in terms of what we could easily transport to my dad, and not spicy either, which left the only choice of dumplings, which were made to order -- we could even see the thumb prints on them. But after a while you get tired of eating dumplings with chives and egg, or egg and cucumber.

My mom and I liked a tureen of thick sheets of noodles, practically like squares, with tomatoes and vegetables in a slightly sour broth. Another delicious dish was wai san or a white mountain root stir-fried with black-eared fungus, though a bit on the oily side.

Comforting tart noodle soup dish with tomato and vegetables

While food and transportation were cheap, we worried about the mounting hospital bills. Every day a strip of white recycled paper was our bill for the previous day and it listed various items and deducted from the original 10,000 yuan payment.

Some of the items listed were ridiculous, including Chinese medicine and that they moved my dad's body from side to side so that his back wouldn't get tired. We saw no evidence of that. So that was how the hospital would overcharge patients...

A few days into our extended stay in Kashgar we started worrying about having enough cash and I would periodically count the red 100 yuan bills to make sure we were covered. Being away from home and no friends or family to rely on, we had to estimate how much more money we needed. We had American cash, but the bills were considered too old to exchange. Even in Kashgar the banks are picky.

Silk Road: Kashgar Surgery a Success

Uyghurs sit in chairs waiting for the blue doors to open

We had been told my dad's surgery was scheduled in the morning so we had planned to go after he woke up. But at 11am, I got a frantic message from our tour guide, saying we needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible to sign another form.

Hadn't my aunt done that already I asked? The guide, who was there when she signed a bunch of papers -- including one promising not to give hongbao to the doctor -- said apparently there was one more to sign, regarding the anesthetic and the risks because of my dad's age.

My mom and I rushed over there, but were bogged down by security -- we had to go through the routine of showing our passports and having our bags scanned, and then figuring out where the surgery room was. All we knew was that it was on the third floor. We asked some hospital staff but even they weren't sure. How could that be?

The line for the elevator was long, so we decided to take the stairs. Once we got there, we saw a room full of Uyghurs, young and old waiting for their loved ones to come out of the surgery area.

We tried to find a doctor and saw no one, and wondered if we were in the right place and went back upstairs to the seventh floor.

In the doctor's office I recognized the doctor who had asked us questions about my dad's medical history and he told us to go down to the third floor. We said there was no one there, and he took us down and told us to stay here.

We were the only Han Chinese in the room, and it made us wonder what Uyghurs thought of us, thought they might have figured out we were not mainland Chinese.

Finally we heard a shrill voice calling our family name.

We rushed over to a small sliding window where a Han Chinese woman wearing a surgical mask gave us a form to sign. It already had my dad's signature on it (or what he could scrawl), but needed us to confirm we accepted the risks of the anesthetic due to his age.

"We are in surgery now! You can't leave! If there is a complication we may need to talk to you!" How reassuring.

There was no water fountain or toilet in this area, nothing. But the best part of this room was that it had wifi. So I used WeChat to communicate with other tour members and our tour guide to give them the latest updates. Our tour guide showed up and we hugged and I cried a bit. The guide was our rock and we were eternally grateful for the help and support.

Transferring dad back to his own bed

After a while the same woman called for us again -- we didn't hear her at first and a Uyghur man motioned for us to come back to the window. The woman with the surgical mask held out a kidney-shaped steel shallow pan that was full of dark blood.

She said the surgery was over and this was how much blood that was drained from my dad's head. I started taking pictures of it, and she encouraged me to do so; she added there were no complications. We now had to wait for him to wake up before taking him back to his room.

My mom and I were relieved the operation went smoothly and I reported this back to tour members. Being able to communicate on WeChat made me feel like we weren't completely cut off from the rest of the world.

It was another hour or so before dad was finally wheeled out of the surgery room. He was groggy but seemed fine. We got into the special elevator to the seventh floor and wheeled him back to his room.

Now we would have to see how long it would take for him to recover so we could get him back home as soon as possible.

Silk Road: Late Night at Kashgar Hospital

The view outside my dad's hospital window of a colourful tower

It was around midnight when we arrived at Xinjiang Kashgar First People's Hospital. We had to have our passports checked at the gate and then our bags screened by X-ray machines.

Turns out we would have to do this every time we went to the hospital, which was twice a day.

Then we went to the emergency room where my dad was lying on a stretcher and he wasn't very comfortable. We took his jacket and tried to make a pillow out of it. Inside the bare room were other patients. To the left was a young man in black curled up in the fetal position with lots of bandages covering his head.

Outside the room a young mother was wheeling her young daughter on a stretcher. The girl, about six or seven years old, was naked from the waist down and her right leg was severely bruised. It didn't look too good.

An ATM machine with cameras above

We were trying to keep my dad entertained while my mom, our doctor friend and the tour guide went to the doctor's office. The doctor was Uyghur and so the guide acted as a translator, explaining each step of the surgery, the surgeon even drew a diagram showing how he would drill holes in my dad's head to drain the blood from the clot.

Then we had to get dad's paperwork done to have him admitted but more importantly to pay the hospital 10,000 yuan (US$1,506) in cash right away. My mom went to the Bank of China ATM and thank goodness was able to withdraw cash. She could only do it in increments of 3,000 yuan which mean withdrawing at least four times.

We wheeled my dad across the hospital compound into another building -- again we went through security checks before he was put into the elevator to the seventh floor -- the neurology ward.

The nurse asked us if we had paid yet and we replied we were in the process of doing that, but she still wouldn't wheel him into the room until she'd seen the receipt. It was that bureaucratic.

Finally the payment was sorted and dad was wheeled down the hall then to the left.

The Han Chinese nurse flicked on the flourescent lights of a semi-private room (no private rooms exist in the hospital unless you're a VIP on the top floor of the hospital). In the bed closest to the door was a young Uyghur man with bandages around his head, while in the other bed was a woman, his wife.

The nurse shooed the woman out of the bed and forced the bleary-eyed Uyghur woman to help put fresh bedding on the bed my dad would be lying on. Then he was transferred from the stretcher to the bed.

At the foot of the bed was a bare bones metal frame cot with bamboo slats with a thin mattress and lump pillow. We were told that since we were foreigners they would let us use the cot free of charge -- usually others would have to pay to rent it on a daily basis.

My dad was given pyjamas but they didn't fit -- we would later find out we had paid a 100 yuan deposit on them.

Another Uyghur doctor who spoke some Mandarin asked us more questions, the answers he entered in the computer, like how many children does my dad have, what medications is he taking, when was his last surgery.

We were told by hospital staff that one family member would have to be there for the night, and my aunt, my mom's younger sister, immediately volunteered. She insisted, saying surgery would be the next day and that we needed to rest. We also gave her the authority to sign all the papers the next morning for the surgery to go ahead.

But it would be a sleepless night for her having to tend to my dad's needs, while we went back to the hotel before 4am. Our tour guide was amazing, there the whole time, translating and advising us on how hospitals work here.

I didn't get much sleep -- at one point I woke up crying and scared, trying to process what was happening and wondering if things would be OK.

Silk Road: Uyghur Culture

Two musicians playing amazing instruments, a woman on tambourine

After we arrived in Kashgar, we quickly noticed things were much different here in the westernmost city in China and Xinjiang that borders Kazakhstan. All the Uyghurs look very different, some fair skinned, almost European, and others very dark and could be mistaken for being Mexican, much like how the Spanish can have various shades of skin colour.

Our first meal was at a Uyghur restaurant that looked traditional and probably for the benefit of tourists. In the middle was a bar (with no alcohol) and a dancing floor with a platform where three musicians sat playing instruments. Two dancers, a man and a woman performed folk dances for guests.

The woman would also dance with her partner for diners

It seemed like the Han Chinese sat on one side of the room, while the other featured Hui ethnic minority people, who are also Muslim, the women wearing simple headdresses and clapping along with the music.

We were given an array of dishes to eat, like a ratatouille with noodles, a large dumpling filled with lamb, and sweet rice seasoned with spices, and of course lamb kebabs. We were also presented with baked buns with minced meat inside.

The music was fantastic, mesmerizing to listen to -- a pity we were not given an introduction to the instruments! And it was interesting to watch how the dancers interpreted the music through their dance steps.

A bowl of noodles with a kind of ratatouille

After dinner, I wanted to share some moon cakes from Hong Kong with the rest of the tour members -- 30-year-old mandarin peels with red bean paste -- but I needed a knife to cut them.

We asked one of the waitresses in Mandarin and she violently shook her head and waved her hand. Then we thought she didn't understand Mandarin and drew a picture... not the best drawing, but when we showed it to her she again shook her head.

Finally we managed to flag down our Uyghur tour guide to ask for a knife and he said we were not allowed to have one in the restaurant. In the end we had to settle for a spoon which I used to cut the moon cakes into quarters. It wasn't the best solution, but it was the only one.

Sweetened and spiced rice with lamb kebabs and a dumpling

We later found out that Uyghurs are not allowed to carry knives anywhere and they are only allowed in the kitchen, not for guests to use. It's just another of the Chinese government's strict measures to try to control this "restive region" following some attacks in the last eight to nine years, some of which involved knives.

The longer we stayed here, the more we realized how oppressive life was like for Uyghurs -- on a daily basis.

Silk Road: Tianshan Lake

Tianshan Lake with its water source, the Tianshan Mountains in the back

Most places in Xinjiang get their water source from Tianshan Mountains, and Tianshan Lake is one of them. The lake is 1,907 metres above sea level and is 4.9 square kilometres, and 105 metres deep at its deepest point.

For lunch we had traditional Hui ethnic minority food

We drove several hours to get here, and after going through the ticket turnstiles. we had to board another tour bus to drive several kilometres up a winding road where we saw water rushing down natural gullies.

The bus dropped us off at the base, where we could then either take a golf cart up to the lake or walk up about a kilometre and I did the latter, a steady incline up through a wooded area which was refreshing and cool.

When we reached the lake, we first went to have lunch in a nearby restaurant that served Hui ethnic minority food. The specialty features nine dishes on a large square platter including a tureen of soup and of course some rice.

A panoramic view of Tianshan Lake (minus the helicopter)

The food were delicious, some of them a bit spicy, others not, like stewed fish, roasted chicken, minced meat wrapped in tofu like rolls and sliced thinly, thin slices of beef and glutinous rice.

On a full stomach it was the perfect time to walk around part of the lake. It is quite crystal clear, a deep aquamarine blue colour, and the snow-capped mountains -- the Tianshan Mountains -- in the distance.

The runoff from the Tianshan Mountains rushing down

While we were there, a helicopter seemed to be doing some filming as it hovered over the lake creating lots of ripples, which isn't normally the case. It seemed to be filming a ferry that was completely empty, perhaps for a promotional video.

But I have to admit the view was pretty impressive and reminded us of Lake Louise in in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.

The water that flows from Tianshan Mountains is very precious and the Uyghurs were very clever in figuring out how to use it effectively by creating an underwater canal system called karez in Uyghur that dates back to 103 BC. Without this water system, civilization in the area would not exist.

Karez were built to be able to send water at longer distances

Back thousands of years ago, the Uyghurs dug vertical wells for water. But they also built canals so that the wells were linked together horizontally and spread out as far as 5,000km.

They were able to figure out where to dig and how to ensure both ends would meet horizontally to carry water further from the water source. This in turn helped irrigate otherwise parched land to grow crops and also sustain people. As a result, this water system took several generations to build.

In total there were over 1,100 karez, but now only about 400 are functioning -- this will impact Turpan in terms of having enough water for everyone and climate change is also a big factor. What will happen when there is no more melting snow on the Tianshan Mountains? What will people do then?

Water rushing by from a karez as shown through the glass

It's a sad reality, which probably also explains why the water pressure in our hotel rooms were quite low and taking a shower took much longer than usual. But it is a good wake up call not to waste water, and that an impending drought could become a reality in Turpan and the surrounding areas.