Wang Leizhan places a thick folder on the table.
Inside is his old police ID card, photos of himself and his colleagues, police school diplomas, copies of interrogation records, and a form with information about his parents—all neatly filed.
"This is my life," says Wang.
He wears his old police uniform when speaking to the FAZ.
He has tied his light blue tie neatly.
His shirt has no folds.
The location of the meeting and Wang's real name are to remain secret.
"This is a struggle of a few weak Democrats against a powerful autocratic empire," he says.
The empire he is referring to is the People's Republic of China.
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Wang has become cautious because he knows what this empire, this surveillance apparatus, is capable of. For a long time he was involved himself; as a police officer in the world-famous province of Xinjiang, where the Muslim Uyghur ethnic group has been brutally oppressed for years. Wang observed, interrogated - and tortured. The French National Assembly recently classified the violence against the Uyghurs as genocide. Parliaments in Canada, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Lithuania also share this view. Germany has not positioned itself so clearly so far.
Because Wang no longer wanted to be part of the system, he left his country.
"It's not a modern state, it's a monarchy," he says of the People's Republic.
Only in exile in Germany does he dare to talk about how the Chinese government oppresses the Uyghurs.
He is one of only a few whistleblowers who had insights into the Chinese authorities and are now reporting on Xinjiang's surveillance methods and camp system.
"For me it was a patriotic service"
At the age of 17, Wang went to the police academy.
A photograph from this period shows him standing up in a blue uniform.
His hair is shaved short.
He was idealistic, says Wang.
"I wanted to protect my fellow human beings." He enjoyed his job for many years.
Wang trained police dogs.
A picture shows him laughing with a black German Shepherd.
Once he rescued people from a burning house.
On his cell phone, he scrolls to images showing a gray apartment building with soot-covered windows.
At the time he was very proud of his work.
In 2018, Wang was transferred to Xinjiang.
"For me it was a patriotic service," he says.
Many police officers from other parts of the country came to the region during this time.
They were placed in dormitories by the state.
Wang estimates that a total of about 150,000 police officers from other provinces have been relocated.
Some had previously been unemployed or had other jobs, he recalls.
They only received instruction in Xinjiang.
Other government officials have also been transferred to Xinjiang.
Wang reports that teachers and bank employees were attracted by higher salaries and government-subsidized housing and building land.
Some of these properties would previously have belonged to Uyghurs.
Wang was supposed to track down suspected separatists in Xinjiang.
He checked whether shops and restaurants used only Chinese characters on their signs.
The Arabic script, which many Muslim Uyghurs know, is forbidden.
People who live out their cultural identity openly, wear a beard or greet each other with "Salam aleikum" make themselves suspicious.
Checkpoints were set up every 500 meters in the cities.
Wang also searched cars there and checked papers, he says.
"Just having a knife in the house is enough reason for the police to take a Uighur away."
Anyone who has been noticed will be followed from now on: all activities on the Internet would be monitored, databases with DNA material would be created.
Uyghurs in exile also report that they had to give blood samples.
Authorities treated Uyghurs differently than Han Chinese, Wang says - because they look down on their Muslim religion but also because separatism poses a threat to the Communist Party system.