Ferkat Jawdat, a Uyghur American living in Virginia, claims that Beijing transferred his aunt and uncle to an internment camp after Jawdat spoke out against the treatment of his relatives still living in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. Jawdat, along with three other Uyghur men and women, met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in March 2019 to discuss Beijing’s mass surveillance campaign targeting Uyghur Muslims. Jawdat’s mother, aunt, and uncle had all been sent to internment camps in 2018, which the Chinese government says are used for vocational and educational purposes. After the meeting, Jawdat learned that his aunt and uncle had been transferred to another camp for a term of eight years, which he says was done in retaliation for his public advocacy. According to Buzzfeed, Pompeo made an apparent reference to the retaliatory jailing in an interview with Fox Business, saying “this is the kind of thing [Chinese officials] do to impact [Jawdat’s] behavior here in America. It’s unacceptable”. It is estimated that more than a million Uyghurs and other Turkic ethnic groups are being held in internment camps.