China detained Muslim women for using WhatsApp & Gmail, terms it 'cyber pre-crime': Report

Women belonging to Muslim ethnic groups were detained in a cell for several months by China police over accusations of various cyber “pre-crimes” such as using online messaging application WhatsApp and a Gmail account, reported Business Insider citing an excerpt from the book ‘In The Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony.’

As per the report, a permanent resident of the United States, Vera Zhou, who is also a student at the University of Washington, said that she was detained for downloading a VPN in a bid to access her school homework and email accounts when she visited her father and her boyfriend in Xinjiang, China. 

In remarks to the US Department of Education, Zhou reportedly wrote that the Chinese police informed her that she will be sent to a ‘re-education class.’

Further elaborating the experience, the American resident said that she was asked to change into their uniform, which has neon green stripes on the sleeves and pants. Zhou said, "The door was locked from the outside."

She informed that she was there from October 2017 to March 2018 and added how she spent major holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and the 2018 New Year in a cell.

Uyghurs and Hui are two major Muslim ethnic groups in China who are presently living under the strict surveillance of the Xi Jinping-led government. Even the United Nations (UN) has noted that over one million Uyghurs are believed to be detained in the so-called 're-education' camps or 'prisons' such as the one Zhou was sent to. In such establishments, former detainees have repeatedly detailed gruesome experiences including torture and medical experiments.

Zhou was held along with 11 others

Zhou was held along with 11 other Muslim women who were identified by the Chinese police as extremist 'pre-criminals' under the country’s internet security law, the book has stated. The law was implemented in 2017 in China and it requires the internet network operators to share personal data with Chinese authorities. 

As per the book, one woman said that she was arrested for downloading WhatsApp in order to communicate with co-workers in Kazakhstan. Another woman, who sold smartphones, reportedly said that she allowed multiple customers to use her ID to set up their SIM cards. 

The book authored by Darren Byler was published on Tuesday and it stated that all three victims were of China’s high-tech surveillance system that specifically targeted Muslim minorities. Notably, Zhou was only released after spending six months at the camp under set conditions that required her to stay within her local neighbourhood and report to a "social stability worker."

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