Read: Uighurs can’t escape Chinese repression, even in Europe

Still, many Western nations have not shied away from their criticism. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called China’s policies “the stain of the century” in July, and that same month, 22 countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan, signed a letter to the United Nations raising serious concerns about Beijing’s internment of its Muslim minorities. In response, a second letter emerged a few days later, signed by 37 countries endorsing Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang.

“It’s certainly a sign of China’s new global position, and it shows the diplomatic effects of [Belt and Road], which is no doubt a goal of the project,” James Millward, a China expert and professor at Georgetown University, told me. “Yet it’s hard to call this a success. Xinjiang has hurt China’s soft power, and they’ve largely been caught off guard by the international attention its received.”

The camps in Xinjiang have not helped China’s reputation in Kazakhstan. Nearly 1.5 million ethnic Kazakh Chinese nationals live in Xinjiang, making them the second-largest Muslim group in the region, after Uighurs. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, 200,000 ethnic Kazakhs from China have moved to Kazakhstan and become Kazakh citizens, including Bilash; tens of thousands of other ethnic Kazakh Chinese nationals live in Kazakhstan as permanent residents, according to estimates. Stuck between popular anger and deepening ties with Beijing, the Kazakh government has tried to strike a balance. The country’s tightly controlled media have given limited coverage to the issue, and when they have, it has largely echoed Beijing’s state propaganda. Meanwhile, Kazakh authorities have engaged in behind-the-scenes diplomacy with China, and managed to secure the release of some Kazakh citizens and ethnic Kazakhs from the camps.

In getting Bilash to sign a plea deal, the Kazakh authorities have sucked the air out of the activism around the internment camps. Several former camp detainees I spoke with following Bilash’s arrest in March said the move sent a chill among the community of camp survivors and their families. With Bilash no longer active, former detainees and those with family members still missing in the camps will be far less willing to share their stories, they said, especially given Beijing’s tactic of threatening and targeting the families of activists who still live in China.

Read: China's jaw-dropping family separation policy

Gene Bunin, a Russian American writer and translator who runs the Xinjiang Victims Database, a project documenting the testimonies of detainees and their families, told me that Bilash’s deal is a blow to those in the Central Asian country working on the issue. He continues to work with activists in Kazakhstan, and has gathered and published more than 5,000 detailed testimonies in his online database, which he said is a “grassroots weapon” that “China reacts to,” noting how public testimonies have led to interned family members being allowed to contact their relatives or being released from the camps and placed into another form of detention, such as house arrest.

But he said that with Bilash no longer active, much of the momentum within the activist community has been slowed. Atajurt, the organization headed by Bilash that once drew global attention to Xinjiang, has been operating at a limited capacity and could shut down without its leader.

“What kept them going was hope that he could be freed and things would continue as before,” Bunin said. “I hope I’m wrong.”

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