[NTD News, May 17, 2026] A Uyghur mother living in the United States recently recounted her tragic experiences in Chinese detention camps during an interview with Fox News in Washington. She stated that she was not only subjected to detention, interrogation, and torture but also witnessed her newborn son die in her arms.

Mihrigul Tursun, 35, recalled in the interview that she had originally studied business administration in Egypt, where she married and had children. In May 2015, she returned to China to visit relatives with her two-month-old triplets. However, as soon as her plane landed at Beijing Capital International Airport, she was taken away by the police.

She said the police forcibly separated her from her children and repeatedly interrogated her about whether she had participated in political activities during her time in Egypt. Subsequently, she was hooded, handcuffed, and sent to a detention facility in Xinjiang(East Turkistan).

Tursun said that during her detention, she was subjected to prolonged interrogations and abuse. Weeks later, authorities suddenly notified her that one of her children was in critical condition. When she arrived at the hospital under police escort, she found her two surviving children hooked up to oxygen support. The next day, a doctor handed her a "death certificate" with her son's name on it.

She said no one told her exactly what happened to the child. Because she was classified as a "political suspect," both the doctors and the police refused to answer her questions. Tursun recalled taking her son's body home and staying with him for three days. As Muslims, her family hoped to bury him according to tradition, but authorities forbade anyone from seeing the body. "I kept trying to warm him up to wake him up, but he never opened his eyes again," she said while sobbing.

She also mentioned that between 2015 and 2018, she was transferred across multiple prisons and detention facilities, during which she experienced psychological abuse, electric shocks, and constant surveillance. She noted that police officers mocked her faith after she said, "God will punish you."

She further noted that more than 60 women were crammed into a tiny cell in the detention center, many of whom did not see sunlight for long periods, including underage girls. She recalled a 17-year-old girl who suffered a mental breakdown after being sexually assaulted and died two months later.

Ultimately, with the intervention of her husband and the Egyptian government, Tursun was allowed to leave China. Today, she lives in the United States with her surviving children and was granted asylum in 2018.

Since 2017, Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang have suffered persecution by the CCP and have been placed in concentration-camp-like facilities, where torture and other abuses are believed to occur.