Northwest China (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) (2017-Present)
The Uyghurs are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group who speak a Turkic language. They live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (known locally as East Turkistan) in northwest China, alongside other predominantly Muslim communities, including Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui, and Tajiks.
After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, authorities consolidated control over the Uyghur region through repeated political campaigns to enforce ideological conformity and suppress dissent.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pursued state-led migration of Han Chinese settlers, the dominant ethnic group in China, into the region and launched recurring security sweeps, particularly in the 1990s and 2000s. These policies laid the groundwork for the far more extensive campaign of mass internment and repression beginning in the mid-2010s.
At the same time, the government forced Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples to assimilate into the Han Chinese national identity. This tightened CCP’s control over a region rich in natural resources and critical minerals, and it provided a strategic geographic position linking China to Central Asia and beyond.
In 2017, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) escalated its approach, launching a region-wide campaign of mass arbitrary detention targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim peoples. Between 1 and 1.8 million people were sent to internment camps without due process. Inside the camps, detainees endured political indoctrination, forced renunciation of religious and cultural practices, torture, and sexual violence.
Authorities also sentenced hundreds of thousands of people to long prison terms, often under broadly defined “extremism” and national security charges. Although the Chinese government has framed these measures as counterterrorism, independent investigations have found no credible evidence of a threat proportionate to the scale and scope of the repression.
Even as the number of Uyghurs held in internment camps declined from its peak between 2019 and 2020, the broader system of repression remained in place. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to impose lengthy prison sentences, compel Uyghurs to work under coercive, state-directed labor programs across multiple industries, and transfer children into state-run boarding schools.
The government also maintains pervasive surveillance and restricts Uyghur language, worship, and community life. Authorities have destroyed mosques, shrines, and other cultural sites; detained imams, scholars, and intellectuals; and imposed birth-prevention measures targeting women. Together, these policies aim to erase Uyghur cultural, religious, and social identity.
International organizations have increasingly condemned these actions. In 2022 after an extensive investigation, the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) concluded that China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples could amount to crimes against humanity. The non-governmental organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reached similar conclusions. A 2021 independent tribunal determined that the Chinese government had committed genocide and crimes against humanity, citing evidence of torture, sexual violence, and targeted birth-prevention policies.
The United States (US), Canada, and several European countries have also labeled China’s actions as genocide and crimes against humanity. Economic measures have included targeted sanctions and import restrictions on goods produced with Uyghur forced labor, most prominently under the US’s 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. However, China’s extensive diplomatic and economic influence has limited international pressure, allowing the government to continue and, in some areas, intensify its policies of repression.