Support for this podcast and the following message come from the NPR Wine Club, which has generated over $1.75 million to support NPR programming, whether buying a few bottles or joining the club, you can learn more at NPRwineclub.org slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase.

Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Embedded from NPR. NPR correspondent Emily

Fang started reporting the story of the Kuchar family and their separation in 2021. It was during

China's crackdown on Uyghurs and other Muslim groups. And since then, Emily has kept following the family.

Abdel Atif Kuchar had been diagnosed with cancer, and his wife, Miriam, was still being held in a

Chinese prison. We will hear from Abdel Atif later in this episode. But also, Emily still

had these nagging questions. Who was the person who tried to dissuade the Kuchar family from telling their story to NPR all those years ago?

And why?

So Emily called up Uighur activist and writer, Abdueli Ayyip.

He's the one who introduced her to the Kuchar family and helped her with translations in her first two episodes.

And then she started digging.

And what she found was a kind of meta story about the people who work to silence stories, and some of them have felt silence themselves,

and how they help perpetuate and justify systems they know are wrong.

Emily will pick up the story after the break

as she and Abduelli worked to track down that mysterious ally to the Kuchar family.

It took two years to convince the Kuchars to talk to us for those first couple episodes.

I kept in contact, but they kept distance.

Abduelli eventually heard through a family member that a prominent Uyghur businessman had

offered his help only if the Kuchars did not talk to the media.

If he keep silent, he will help to save his wife too.

This businessman's name, the relative told Abduelli, was Sabur Baghda.

He is a man known to make things happen, but he is also rumored to request things in return,

...