Uyghur-American Ziba Murat is pleading for President Donald Trump to help bring her mother home from China while he is in Beijing this week, after her mother was apparently arrested in alleged retaliation for her aunt's advocacy against Beijing's oppression of Uyghurs.

Murat says she has learned that her mother, Gulshan Abbas, was detained in September 2018, just days after Murat's aunt, Rushan Abbas, gave a speech in the United States about China's oppression of Uyghurs, a Muslim Turkic ethnic group that has a large population in the Communist-run country.

China denies unjustly targeting Uyghurs or committing other human rights violations against the group. 

The plea comes as Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping for a historic summit in Beijing that ends Friday. The president is expected to appeal for the release of some Americans still detained in China and speak with Xi about the treatment of Uyghurs, though it's unclear when that conversation would take place. 

Gulshan Abbas is not American, but she has 24 American relatives and is in poor health, Murat said. She has not spoken to her mother since her detainment.

Disappearance overnight

Murat described her mother's disappearance as something that happened overnight and was noticed because she spoke to her on the phone on her way to work every day. 

"I used to talk to her all the time because she lived alone and had health issues," she told Just The News. "I was also a new mom. The baby was three months old, so I'm learning a lot and calling her and asking her, 'What do I do?' She told me [the night before her disappearance] to get some sleep while the baby is sleeping, so I went to sleep." 

Murat claimed that the next morning she tried to get a hold of her mom on her way to work, then texted her mother on a messaging app that went unread and tried multiple other times to reach her with no success.

"We wouldn't have even thought of her [arrest] because she's a retired medical doctor, she doesn't do politics, she's not an activist," Murat insisted. "She's a grandmother. She just like disappeared. We didn't know what happened to her or where she was."

Murat said she also learned through sources two years later that her mother was sentenced at trial to 20 years on terrorism charges. China does not appear to have officially acknowledged the trial or detainment.

"It was really hard for me because I was a new mom holding a baby, looking for my own mom," she said. "My daughter is now eight. My sister has three kids now."

Growing up without a grandmother

Murat also commented on the impact that her mother's disappearance has had on her daughter, who has had to grow up without a grandmother. 

"Months ago we were looking at an encyclopedia for kids. They have a section for family tree," Murat recalled. "So we just started talking about her dad's parents and my parents. And I asked her, 'Do you know your grandparents? Like, can you tell me the names of your grandma and grandpa?' And she said, 'Grandma Buchan and Grandpa Marat.' 

"Then she just pauses, she looked at me. She's like, 'Mommy, I don't know if I'm dreaming or this is real, but I saw aunt Rushan holding grandma's picture, and the picture says, Let my sister go.'" she continued. "Then I said 'grandma's very far away. We're trying to bring her here.'"

Cooperation with government results in no change

Murat said that she has worked with the State Department, members of Congress, the White House and other parts of the Trump and Biden administrations to bring her mother to the United States. Although she has had positive and supportive experiences, Murat said her mother is still detained in China for a crime she did not commit. 

President Trump "has in the past brought home non-Americans. Now this affects Americans living here," Murat said. "For eight years [my mother] has had health issues. She has hypertension, she's legally blind and she has had a back problem where if it's triggered, she's immobilized. These kinds of things keep me up at night. She's getting old, so I really hope this president will be the one to bring her home." 

Murat also said her mother's case was an example of "transnational repression" because she was being punished for something that a relative did overseas. 

"This is not OK. American citizens shouldn't be afraid to speak up," she said. "This is our right. If President Trump raises this case with the Chinese, it would also send a message that we will not tolerate this and that innocent people should be let go."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Murat said working with Congress has helped elevate her mother's case and that her mother's name is on the list of people in China that both chambers are calling for Beijing to release, but her mission won't stop until her mother is in the United States. 

The resolution that lists five people for China to release passed the House on Wednesday. The other four people are Pastor Jin Mingri, Pastor Gao Quanfu and his wife Pang Yu, and Jimmy Lai. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.