Chief Witness, The, Sayragul Sauytbay
Chief Witness, The, Sayragul Sauytbay
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Chief Witness, The
Escape from China's Modern-Day Concentration Camps

Author: Sayragul Sauytbay, Alexandra Cavelius, Caroline Waight (translator)

Narrator: Xifeng Brooks

Unabridged: 9 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/24/2021

Synopsis

Born in Chinas northwestern province, Sayragul Sauytbay trained as a doctor before being appointed a senior civil servant. But her life was upended when the Chinese authorities incarcerated her. Her crime? Being Kazakh, one of Chinas ethnic minorities. The northwestern province borders the largest number of foreign nations and is the point in China that is the closest to Europe. In recent years, it has become home to over 1,200 penal camps?modern-day gulags that are estimated to house three million members of the Kazakh and Uyghur minorities. Imprisoned solely due to their ethnicity, inmates are subjected to relentless punishment and torture, including being beaten, raped, and used as subjects for medical experiments. The camps represent the greatest systematic incarceration of an entire people since the Third Reich. In prison, Sauytbay was put to work teaching Chinese language, culture, and politics, in the course of which she gained access to secret information that revealed Beijings long-term plans to undermine not only its minorities but also democracies around the world. Upon her escape to Europe, she was reunited with her family, but she still lives under constant threat of reprisal. This rare testimony from the biggest surveillance state in the world reveals not only the full, frightening scope of Chinas tyrannical ambitions but also the resilience and courage of its author.

About Sayragul Sauytbay

Sayragul Sauytbay was awarded the 2021 Nuremberg International Human Rights Award and the US State Department’s International Women of Courage Award in 2020. Her key witness accounts have already created a stir on the world stage and have been reported by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Victoria on July 31, 2021

The best book of 2021. Sayragul is a remarkably brave woman who has escaped China and its Communist Party. Even while she lives outside of China, she still lives in constant fear from the torment of the Chinese secret police. This is an uncomfortable, eye opening read. 2021 China has multiple concen......more

Goodreads review by Emily on August 03, 2021

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana As a history teacher, one of the biggest messages to my students is that we are simply learning about a case study of a bigger concept. For example, World War 1 is just one example of a war. The Chartist movement is j......more

Goodreads review by Emer on August 26, 2021

If you only read one book this year please make it this one. This book is hard to read, it's hard to be confronted with the stark realities of the Chinese concentration camps. This was June's pick for the book club in work but it has taken me this long to get through it because it was emotionally dra......more

Goodreads review by Cristin on August 07, 2021

An excellent first hand account of the atrocities the CCP is committing against millions, in modern day concentrations camps in North Western China. Even after she continues to receive daily threats against her life and the lives of her family members, the author is still speaking out about what she......more

Goodreads review by Jamie on June 06, 2021

Excellent read regarding the truth in China Eye opening about China and what they are doing to silence opposition and destroy other cultures. I really think everyone should read this to see the truth about the atrocities taking place in China.......more

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