He helped China repress Uyghurs. He says he’s a victim, too.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

He helped China repress Uyghurs. He says he’s a victim, too.

Zhang Yabo, a former police officer tasked with enforcing China’s campaign to surveil, detain and indoctrinate the Uyghur population, shows a photo of his baptism as a Roman Catholic in April 2025 on his laptop, in southern Germany on June 24. | FELIX SCHMITT / THE NEW YORK TIMES

By Li Yuan
The New York Times

Jul 30, 2026

Halfway through a short speech he was giving at the German Bundestag, Zhang Yabo began to choke back tears.

Zhang had served for nine years as a police officer in Xinjiang, an enforcer in China’s campaign to surveil, detain and indoctrinate that region’s Uyghur population. At the campaign’s height, an estimated 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities were held in internment camps.

Tens of thousands of police officers carried out China’s state oppression in Xinjiang, but Zhang is a rare voice speaking out about it. Standing before German lawmakers and human rights activists in June, Zhang described Xinjiang as a giant prison enclosed by an “ironclad wall.”