Click Here Podcast: "Erased: The Disappearance of Ekpar Asat"

Recorded Future News | August 19, 2025
Host: Dina Temple-Raston

Overview

This episode explores the chilling story of Ekpar Asat, a Uyghur tech innovator who built Bagdash, an online platform to connect and empower his people amidst increasingly harsh surveillance and repression by Chinese authorities. The story is also told through the eyes of his sister, Reihan Asat, reflecting on family, resistance, ambiguous loss, and the broader implications of state surveillance. The episode weaves intimate memories with geopolitical context, emphasizing how digital repression can erase lives — and how authoritarian tactics perfected in Xinjiang threaten freedoms everywhere.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Life Under Surveillance and the Seeds of Flight

• Abdullah Ali Ayyub’s Story (00:02 - 04:11)
  • Opens with Abdoulaye’s anxiety as he flees China, fearing another arrest.
  • Emotional retelling of how even small acts like opening a Uyghur language kindergarten were criminalized.
  • Ekpar Asat arranges Abdoulaye’s escape, displaying deep trust and selflessness.
    • Quote: “He said that I want to see you leave safely. Let me do it.” – Abdoulaye (03:39)
  • Final message: “I am on the plane. Please take care of yourself.” (04:11)

2. Ekpar Asat: The Visionary

• Early Years and Family Bonds (06:31 - 10:52)
  • Reihan Asat remembers childhood, loyalty cultivated by their parents.
    • Quote: “If she can cultivate this incredibly strong friendship between the two of us, then we could be each other's best friend in this life.” – Reihan (07:18)
  • Ekpar’s curiosity about computers and knack for fixing things foreshadowed his later ambitions.

3. The Birth and Growth of Bagdash

• Creating a Digital Home (10:52 - 15:52)
  • Bagdash started as a college project, quickly growing into a digital town square for Uyghurs.
    • Quote: “Bagdash is known as this... tree is known for its endurance of all sorts of seasons in life, right? Just like embodiment of different history, historical periods in which people's resilience really comes through.” – Reihan (11:06)
  • Emphasis on cultural preservation: Music, art, and history shared online in Uyghur language.
  • Grassroots business model: local advertisers, community support.
  • Achieved scale—became the main Uyghur social network, despite ever-present risks.

Civic Challenge and Government Tolerance (15:52 - 18:53)

• Platform fostered open discussion and grassroots accountability:
  • Example: A teacher’s sexual harassment case became a cause célèbre, leading to real-world consequences.
  • Quote: “People were saying, like they were actually commanding her for her courage to speak up…” – Reihan (16:57)
• Ekpar’s careful moderation keeps platform alive while empowering users—momentarily balancing state pressure and community needs.

4. The Crackdown and Digital Disappearance

• 2009 Urumqi Riots and Digital Blackout (20:34 - 22:55)
  • Social media-enabled protest leads to government shutdowns; Bagdash silenced along with the Internet.
    • Quote: “For a brief moment, Bagdash had been a bridge, a town square, a respite, one that the Chinese government tolerated. Until it didn’t.” – (21:54)
  • On-the-ground surveillance escalates: checkpoints, facial recognition, harsh consequences for minor offenses.

5. Ekpar’s Brush With the World – and His Erasure

• State Department Fellowship and Arrest (22:55 - 27:24)
  • 2016: Ekpar participates in a US exchange, visiting the States with official blessing—a rare privilege for a Uyghur.
  • Heartfelt sibling reunion; Reihan and Ekpar dream about a future together.
    • Quote: “We had this, like, a very, very... just a vision for the next few months, right? Like, it's a beautiful vision, us as a family together.” – Reihan (25:32)
  • Ekpar gives his sister a copy of his State Department itinerary—a "souvenir" that later becomes her only lead.
  • Three weeks after returning home, he disappears. Officially “inciting ethnic hatred,” but there are no real charges or trial.

6. Reihan’s Fight for Her Brother

• Searching For Answers and Advocacy (27:24 - 30:30)
  • Initially advised by US officials to stay quiet (“it’s often better not to be too loud”).
  • True cost of “foreign travel”—one of 48 arbitrary criteria for arrest.
    • Quote: “As if you could catch freedom the way you catch a cold.” – (28:54)
  • Years of silence force Reihan to finally go public—highlight in global media, appeal to diplomats.

7. Ambiguous Loss and the Weight of Love

• A Painful Family Visit & Psychological Toll (30:30 - 33:39)
  • Family granted brief, monitored prison visit. Ekpar holds up, but his optimism wears thin.
  • Ekpar urges Reihan: “She put her life on hold for me and I don’t want her to do that.” (32:01)
  • Experts call this state “ambiguous loss”—harder than a clean break.
    • Quote: “It just never stops. The horror never stops.” – Reihan (32:46)
  • Trauma of loving someone who’s present in spirit but unreachable in reality.
    • Quote: “What is the meaning of life then? Love, she said, is everything we live for now.” – Reihan’s mother (33:39)

8. Broader Implications – Authoritarianism’s Creep

• The Global Warning (33:39 - 35:18)
  • What happened in Xinjiang is a warning for the world. Authoritarianism starts small: a book banned, a website gone, until erasure is normalized.
    • Quote: “The pattern doesn’t shout, it whispers. At first, it’s framed as protection, a matter of national security… Until finally, one day, the voices are gone, not with a bang, but with a quiet click.” – Dina Temple-Raston (34:20)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On living under threat:
  “Because, like, if they come directly to arrest me, I should be prepared. Because in the jail it's really cold and nobody will help you.”
  – Abdullah Ali Ayyub (00:40)

• Ekpar’s Motivation:
  “Bagdash is known as this kind of, like, tree... people's resilience really comes through.”
  – Reihan Asat (11:06)

• On ambiguous loss:
  “It just never stops. The horror never stops.”
  – Reihan Asat (32:46)

• A lesson on hope and love:
  “‘What is the meaning of life then?’ Love, she said, is everything we live for now.”
  – Reihan's mother (33:39)

• A warning for all:
  “Authoritarianism never starts with camps. It tiptoes in, starts with something smaller, easy to dismiss—a book that's quietly removed... a website that gets taken down... The pattern doesn’t shout, it whispers.”
  – Dina Temple-Raston (34:00)

Important Timestamps

• [00:02] Abdoulaye’s escape and reminiscence about Ekpar
• [06:31] Reihan’s early family memories
• [10:52] Founding and meaning of Bagdash
• [15:52] The teacher’s case on Bagdash—platform as civic force
• [20:34] Urumqi riots and digital blackout
• [22:55] US fellowship and last sibling reunion
• [26:32] Ekpar's disappearance
• [27:24] Reihan begins advocacy
• [32:01] Parental prison visit; message from Ekpar
• [33:39] Reflections on love, ambiguous loss, and resistance

Tone and Style

The episode uses empathetic, narrative storytelling—rich with vivid memories and emotional detail, paired with clear-eyed reporting about digital surveillance and authoritarian tactics. Dina Temple-Raston balances the deeply personal (family, love, memory, grief) with the political and technological, in language that is accessible yet urgent.

Conclusion

"Erased: The Disappearance of Ekpar Asat" moves beyond the headline numbers and policy debates to tell a human story—how repression erases lives, silences voices, and shatters families. It’s also a story about determination, the endurance of memory, and the warning signs of authoritarianism’s digital advance. Ekpar Asat’s legacy stands as a digital home for a threatened culture, and his sister’s tireless advocacy reminds us whose freedom is really at stake when technology becomes a tool for control.