Bugra Arkin, the owner of a Uyghur restaurant in California, claims to have received direct threats from Chinese secret police at his restaurant. California media reports that his parents, still in Xinjiang, are monitored by the authorities. His father was detained in Xinjiang and Arkin says Chinese officials told him to stop promoting Uyghur identity and culture if he wanted his father to be released. His mother had an app installed on her phone that monitors their conversations and she never answers Arkin’s questions about his father.