She survived a Chinese internment camp and made it to Virginia. Will the U.S. let her stay?

November 17, 2019

Washington Post Emily Rauhala, Anna Fifield

After her detention, she was forced to pay a fine of more than $2,500 for breaking China’s family planning rules by having three, not two, children.

She was then told the government was offering her a free, surgical sterilization — a procedure she did not want but was terrified to refuse lest she be detained again.

On Oct. 22, 2018, a local official escorted her to the hospital, and she underwent surgery.

Dawut wept recalling the operation and thinking of the fourth child she longed for but would never have. “They want the extinction of Uighurs,” she said.