Country: China

Group: Uighur

Date Finalized: 10/19/2021

Team: Victoria Fuller (lead), Ann Thomas, Gabriel Cardenas

Content Warning: massacre, 9/11, re-education camps, forced labor, forced relocation

Approximate Time Period: 2001-present

The Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking, Muslim group native to the Xianjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of northwestern China. In 1933 and again in 1944 Uighurs and other supporters declared independence from China establishing East Turkestan (Regencia, 2021). By 1949, communist Chinese government forces annexed East Turkestan (Regencia, 2021).

Uighurs have more recently come into conflict with the state. During the Gulja Massacre in 1997 Chinese soldiers killed hundreds of Uighur protesters (Regencia, 2021). After the 9/11 terror attacks the Chinese government implemented policies targeting extremism, terrorism, and separatism (BBC, 2021; Regencia, 2021). In 2009, a Uighur protest in Urumqi resulted in over 400 deaths (Amnesty International, 2010). Another conflict in Kasghar in 2011 led to 14 deaths and over 40 injuries. The Chinese government has used these conflicts as justification to take stricter measures with Uighurs, increasing surveillance and arrests of Uighurs. It is estimated that Chinese authorities have detained nearly one million Uighurs in reeducation camps or have sent them to work camps outside of the XUAR (Zambrana, n.d.). Tens of thousands of Uighurs have fled China to avoid persecution (Zambrana, n.d.). Moreover, the Chinese government has displaced an estimated two million Uighurs (BB, 2021).

            With many detailed accounts, multiple international agencies and NPOs providing information regarding this issue the data quality is 3/3.

Sources

  1. Amnesty International. (2010, July 2). “Justice, justice”: The July 2009 protests in Xinjiang, China. Amnesty International. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/027/2010/en/.
  2. BBC. (2021, June 21). Who are the Uyghurs and why is China being accused of genocide? BBC News. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037.
  3. Regencia, T. (2021, July 14). What you should know about China’s minority Uighurs. Uighur News | Al Jazeera. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/8/uighurs-timeline.
  4. Zambrana, M. (n.d.). Uyghur refugees speak out against genocide and crimes against humanity. Equal Times. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.equaltimes.org/uyghur-refugees-speak-out-against?lang=en#.YW98p9mKQ-Q.