When Erbaqyt Otarbai’s appendix ruptures, he is singing the Chinese national anthem with a class of fellow detainees. The pain is excruciating, almost unbearably so—but even as he later screams and cries on the operating table, it doesn’t seem like anybody cares. Then a guard approaches him.
“You won’t die,” the guard tells him. “And even if you die, no one will know about it.”
