 I became Muslim. I was still a Muslim. But I died in a war. We killed the weak people with our lives. Turcinazia Dune is part of the Turkic ethnic group known as the Uyghurs. Chinese Muslims who mostly live in the northwest province of Xinjiang. There are about 12.8 million Uyghurs who live there. And human rights groups say that many have become victims of crimes against humanity of the government. China is accused of imprisoning over one million Uyghurs in re-education camps, sexual abuse, and even foresterlization. Ziya Dun says she spent 11 months in jail for no stated reason. She was sexually assaulted and tortured. Communist Party officials have attributed their treatment of the Uyghurs to the war on terror. In 2008, the region suffered multiple terrorist attacks, linked to the East Turkistan independence movement, which is a faction within the Uyghur community that wants Xinjiang to separate from China and form its own state. But human rights advocates say that terrorism is just an excuse. The Chinese have oppressed the Uyghurs as part of their push for radical conformity. The government describes the camps as focused on re-education and career training. In 2017, when the crackdown intensified, Uyghurs were targeted for wearing headscarves, for abstaining from drinking alcohol, and for displaying abnormal behaviors like purchasing dumbbells. The Uyghur community is accused of Kathmandu's murder. They say it's the right thing to do, especially in the case of the Uyghurs. Some attribute the Chinese government push for conformity to capitalism, and Bijang's desire to staff factories, increase production, and surpass the US on the global stage. But the Chinese Communist Party says its goal is to build a modern socialist country, and that description is more apt. China seeks to impose one identity, culture, and language on all of its 1.37 billion people, erasing that which does not conform. From the policies of Mao to those of Lenin and Stalin, when command and control societies impose uniformity, it inevitably leads to human rights violations. Ziya Dune says that she felt as if the Chinese government set out to eradicate her culture and ethnicity. The Chinese government has ever more sophisticated tools of surveillance at its disposal, and it allegedly provides local authorities with lists that detail how to identify extremists. In Ziya Dune's case, she says she was arrested when she returned to Xinjiang from Kazakhstan, where she had been living with her Kazakh husband. Ziya Dune says she was released after her husband advocated on her behalf. She made it to the US under the protection of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, an organization that seeks to promote the rights of the Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims from Xinjiang. Today Ziya Dune lives in a suburb of DC. She says that her heart aches for her family and the other Uyghurs back home, millions of whom are still being imprisoned, tortured and surveilled in their most private spaces, including their living rooms, dining areas and prayer spaces according to one report. Although the US has condemned the mistreatment of the Uyghurs and government officials are boycotting the Bijang Olympics, in protest, we've admitted zero new Uyghur refugees in the last two years. Welcome in foreigners like Ziya Dune is what has allowed the US to avoid becoming a monoculture, and our diversity of thought and experience is the secret of American capitalism. China is a racing of the Uyghur culture and its decision to surveil, imprison and torture the Uyghur people in pursuit of becoming the leading global superpower isn't just morally abhorrent, it won't work.