One of the most ludicrous accounts of a supposed camp detainee ever published, coming out in the Guardian to promote her new book “Rescapée du Goulag Chinois” - we’ll go through section by section, a thread 1/X https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/12/uighur-xinjiang-re-education-camp-china-gulbahar-haitiwaji?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

She had been on “unpaid leave” for ten years, they never thought to fire her, but called her a decade out to ask her to sign “retirement docs”. She asks the right questions “why now? Why just for a trifle?” - who wouldn’t be confused by such a ridiculous situation? 2/

Her husband had tried to go abroad many times looking for work, but always had to come back. Finally, he made it work not because he found a job offer, but he received asylum? On what grounds did he obtain asylum? We aren’t told.. 3/

Now why did Kerim want to leave? Because of rampant hiring discrimination, including "no uighurs" in job ads in small print. But fortunately, both of them miraculously found jobs with PetroChina in Karamay immediately after graduation 4/

For context, Karamay was China's first ever commercial oilfield, and one of the largest - it turned Karamay into a prosperous oil boomtown. A job with PetroChina there was one of the most sought after jobs in Xinjiang. https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/xinjiang/karamay/2015-09/14/content_21894079.htm 5/

Now, back in France, the whole family naturalizes, except for the author, who gives a excuse about family. French citizens are not barred from visiting China, so this is an howler of an excuse. While she claimed to care deeply for her mother, she never visited 2006 to 2016. 6/

She decides to return to XJ - but is already scared. Why would her husband, who was the reason they left, reassure her about going? And why would she go for a "trifle" of retirement paper for a job she left ten years ago? Pension would be 200 EUR tops, not worth the risk 7/

Most of the “197 dead” she cites from the Urumqi riots were Han Chinese. This was not a “both sides” situation. For further detail on 2009, thread with video footage here: https://twitter.com/carlzha/status/1108818491249852417 8/

Back in XJ, the officers have a photo of her kid at a protest. While the protests have community aspects, they’re also about protesting the PRC govt. - and her husband frequently went This is the same man that also told her to go back to XJ because she’d be fine! 9/

Also note here that like Amelia Pang in the NYT, these people can’t help but bring up the phrenology “full checks, slender noses /Prominent cheekbones, round eyes, aquiline noses” Emphasize that they don’t look like those Chinese with the slit eyes and sallow cheeks, right? 10/

Ending the dynastic cycle is actually one of the CPC’s claims to legitimacy, why would they want people to glorify past feudal dynasties instead of the CPC? How does the glory of the Sui translate to support for the PRC? Seems like a strange way to indoctrinate people! 11/

It is impossible to sterilize someone via a shot to an arm, and bizarre that they would want to sterilize a 50 year old mother of two. 12/

The entire camp atrocities section reads like someone desperate to hit all of the common XJ talking points - if going off a script - just like the World Uyghur Congress admits it gets its #s from the western media in a never ending loop https://twitter.com/Elvibarri9/status/1344154630670999553 13/

Well fast forward two years, and now she’s suddenly being let go. Why was there a trial? Other “leaked documents” have claimed that people in camps are not charged with crimes or tried, merely held till “graduation”. 14/

Uyghurs are supposedly heavily surveilled even if released (as Byler claims) - so why was she allowed to simply leave for France afterwards in 2019 at the height of the XJ propaganda full court press? Is China simply stupid? 15/

This story reads more like a ghost written horror novella written by a program fed only the works of Zenz, Byler, Grose, et al. The premises strain all possible credulity that a refugee husband would encourage his wife to return to their supposed land of persecution...16/

to collect a small pension. We also are expected to believe she was tortured for two years, then hurriedly declared innocent and released right back to France, where she could immediately write a tell all book to tell the world all about evil China. Who’s buying this? 17/end

One last note - the co-author Rozenn Morgat is with Liberation, a French org that has spent a lot of ink defending Adrian Zenz. More context here: https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1351375298688901120