NEW YORK (BP) – A Chinese dissident whose filming provided documentation of detention camps for Uyghurs, a Muslim people group in northwest China, appeared before an upstate New York judge yesterday (Jan. 12) for possible deportation to his home country.
Under COVID lockdown and having learned to circumvent China’s internet firewalls, Heng Guan (also known as Guan Heng) came across a report by Buzzfeed News in August 2020 that chronicled the construction of what appeared to be internment camps and re-education centers for the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. Posing as a tourist, Guan traveled to the area in October 2020 and filmed hours of footage.
In the meantime, reporting grew over China’s mistreatment of the Uyghur people. Just before Guan fled his home country in the summer of 2021, Southern Baptists joined the outcry by adopting a resolution, On The Uyghur Genocide.
He traveled to Ecuador, then flew to the Bahamas. In August, Guan uploaded his finished project and set a scheduled published time, unsure if he would survive the 85-mile solo trip aboard a small, rubber raft to Florida.
His video became the digital bomb Guan expected it to be. Buzzfeed News hailed it as verifying their reporting. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission called on President Biden to “immediately prioritize this issue” as the “lives of millions of Uyghurs depend upon it.”
The Chinese government targeted Guan’s family, questioning them on repeated occasions for hours, and repeatedly flagged his YouTube page. Relentless social media attacks on his character by Communist-friendly accounts drove him into a depression and withdrawal from technology, which also kept him from fully realizing the impact his work had made.
Guan made his way to New York, where he filed for asylum, obtained a work permit and began making a living as an Uber driver delivering food. He then became a long-haul driver, left New York City and moved to a small town outside of Albany. Last August, ICE agents who were looking for his roommates questioned Guan on how he entered the country. Guan answered honestly and explained his immigration status, but agents arrested him anyway.
In December, a Department of Homeland Security prosecutor asked for Guan to be deported to Uganda. Guan’s attorney argued that such a move would immediately place his client in danger, as Uganda and China have strong ties through trade and defense relations and would almost certainly result in Guan’s return to his home country.
“I would jump off the plane if deported,” Guan told the German news site DW in an exclusive interview from an ICE detention facility. “I would rather die than face imprisonment in China.”
“If he gets deported, he’s really dead,” said Guan’s mother, now living in Taiwan, in November.
No decisions have been released from yesterday’s hearing.
Speaking with Human Rights in China, a watchdog group, Guan said he has no regrets, despite all the hardship.
“Because I am now personally experiencing the taste of losing my freedom, I can better understand the feelings of those in concentration camps,” he said in a phone call from prison. “I need help from the outside world now, and so do they. So, I still believe I did the right thing back then.”
Additional religious persecution in China
Reports have also surfaced of government crackdowns on Protestant churches in China, with buildings destroyed, leaders arrested and others detained after police raided homes and the church office.
Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu reported the harassment. Among those arrested are an elder and his wife, who left a pre-recorded message for their children.
“Carson, little brother, if one day you do not see Mom and Dad anymore, remember the hymn we sang together today,” it said.
The advocacy group ChinaAid, meanwhile, obtained video of authorities demolishing Yayang Church in Wenzhou.
After about a dozen area churches refused to fly red flags by government order, members of Yayang Church remained there on Dec. 14 as a vigil while police continued to gather throughout the day. At around 3 a.m. on Dec. 15, the government deployed drones and signal-jamming vehicles that cut off all communication.
“Police put black hoods over the heads of the brothers and sisters and forcibly cleared them out, deliberately creating an atmosphere of terror, using counterterrorism-style tactics against gentle and law-abiding Christians who were gathering normally,” said a ChinaAid report.
As of Jan. 9, 20 church members were still detained by police.
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