Persecution of Uyghurs in China

Persecution of Uyghurs in China
Part of the Xinjiang conflict
Detainees listening to speeches in a camp in Lop County, Xinjiang, April 2017
Xinjiang, highlighted red, shown within China
Location	Xinjiang, China
Date	2014–present
Target	Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic Muslims
Attack type	Internment, forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced birth control, forced labor, torture, brainwashing, alleged rape (including gang rape)
Victims	est. ≥1 million detained
Perpetrator	Government of the People's Republic of China
Motive	Counterterrorism (official) Sinicization, Islamophobia,[1] and suppression of political dissent

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History of Xinjiang
Ancient period Tocharians Yuezhi Xiongnu Western Regions (Han Protectorate; Chief Officials) Kingdom of Khotan Former Liang Former Qin Later Liang Western Liang Gaochang Rouran First Turkic Khaganate Western Turkic Khaganate Eastern Turkic Khaganate Second Turkic Khaganate
Medieval and early modern period Tang Protectorates (West; Beiting) Tibetan Empire Uyghur Khaganate Kara-Khanid Khanate Kingdom of Qocho Qara Khitai Mongol Empire (Yuan; Chagatai Khanate) Moghulistan (Turpan; Yarkent) Ming ruled Kara Del Dzungar Khanate Kumul Khanate Yettishar Qing rule (Dzungar genocide Dungan Revolt Qing reconquest)
Modern period Xinjiang Province, Republic of China (Xinjiang clique 1st East Turkestan Republic 2nd East Turkestan Republic) Xinjiang Province, People's Republic of China Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Production and Construction Corps Xinjiang conflict Xinjiang internment camps / Persecution of Uyghurs in China)
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The Chinese government is committing a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang that is often characterized as persecution or as genocide. Beginning in 2014, the Chinese government, under the administration of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping, incarcerated more than an estimated one million Turkic Muslims without any legal process in internment camps. Operations from 2016 to 2021 were led by Xinjiang CCP Secretary Chen Quanguo.^[2] It is the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II.^[3][4] The Chinese government began to wind down the camps in 2019. Amnesty International states that detainees have been increasingly transferred to the formal penal system.

In addition to the arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in state-sponsored camps, government policies have included forced labor,^[5][6] suppression of Uyghur religious practices,^[7] political indoctrination,^[8] forced sterilization,^[9] forced contraception,^[10][11] and forced abortion.^[12][13] Experts estimate that, since 2017, some sixteen thousand mosques have been razed or damaged,^[2] and hundreds of thousands of children have been forcibly separated from their parents and sent to boarding schools.^[14][15] Chinese government statistics reported that from 2015 to 2018, birth rates in the mostly Uyghur regions of Hotan and Kashgar fell by more than 60%.^[9] In the same period, the birth rate of the whole country decreased by 9.69%.^[16] Chinese authorities acknowledged that birth rates dropped by almost a third in 2018 in Xinjiang, but denied reports of forced sterilization and genocide.^[17] Birth rates in Xinjiang fell a further 24% in 2019, compared to a nationwide decrease of 4.2%.^[9]

These actions have been described as the forced assimilation of Xinjiang, or as an ethnocide or cultural genocide,^[18][19] or as genocide. Those accusing China of genocide point to intentional acts committed by the Chinese government that they say run afoul of Article II of the Genocide Convention,^[20][21][22] which prohibits "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part," a "racial or religious group" including "causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group" and "measures intended to prevent births within the group".^[23]

The Chinese government denies having committed human rights abuses in Xinjiang.^[3][24] In an assessment by the UN Human Rights Office, the United Nations (UN) stated that China's policies and actions in the Xinjiang region may be crimes against humanity, although it did not use the term genocide.^[25][26] International reactions have varied. In 2020, 39 UN member states issued statements to the United Nations Human Rights Council criticizing China's policies, while 45 countries supported China's "deradicalization measures in Xinjiang" and opposed "the politicization of human rights issues and double standards".^[27] In December 2020, a case brought to the International Criminal Court was dismissed because the crimes alleged appeared to have been "committed solely by nationals of China within the territory of China, a State which is not a party to the Statute", meaning the ICC could not investigate them.^[28][29] The United States has declared the human rights abuses a genocide, announcing its finding on January 19, 2021, though the United States Department of State found that there is insufficient evidence to support that characterization.^[30][31] Legislatures in several countries have since passed non-binding motions describing China's actions as genocide, including the House of Commons of Canada,^[32] the Dutch parliament,^[33] the House of Commons of the United Kingdom,^[34] the Seimas of Lithuania,^[35] and the French National Assembly.^[36] Other parliaments, such as those in New Zealand,^[37] Belgium,^[38] and the Czech Republic condemned the Chinese government's treatment of Uyghurs as "severe human rights abuses" or crimes against humanity.^[39]