The government in China is further tightening its grip on minority groups in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as it continues to use its deradicalization campaign to suppress local residents, Uighur leaders and human rights activists warn. China started a campaign in April 2017 to arrest local…
Nurbiye Nurtay, an ethnic Uyghur Muslim from northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), has been living in Malaysia practicing traditional Uyghur medicine for the last three years. She lost contact with her family in Ghulja (Yining) county, in the XUAR’s Ili Kazakh (in Chinese, Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture, nearly a year ago, and only recently discovered…
Two Uyghur civil servants in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have been jailed for failing to send members of their ethnic group to “political re-education camps,” according to sources, as part of a crackdown by authorities on so-called “two-faced” officials. Omerjan Hesen, 34, director of archives for the Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) prefectural…
On a rainy April morning in Washington, about 150 protestors gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy, waving light-blue flags and shouting slogans on behalf of an ethnic group few Americans have ever heard of. The Uyghurs (pronounced WEE-gurs) — an ancient people spread across much of East and Central Asia — mainly practice Islam,…
A young Uyghur woman has gone missing after returning to her home in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) from studying abroad in Malaysia, and is believed to be detained in a “political re-education camp,” according to her Germany-based sister. Gulgine Tashmemet flew home to Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) city in the XUAR’s Ili…
An elderly Uyghur woman has died from health complications after being incarcerated at a political “re-education camp” in Ili Kazakh (in Chinese, Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture, in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), according to sources. Since April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” views have been jailed or…
Hong Kong [China], May 22 (ANI): There has been a sharp uptick in government-backed persecution of Christianity and other religions in China, but none are currently suffering as much as the Muslim population in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Some 11 million Uighurs reside in this northwest Chinese province. Of course, using the word “autonomous” to describe Xinjiang is…
BEIJING (AFP) – All Chinese mosques should raise the national flag to “promote a spirit of patriotism” among Muslims, the country’s top Islamic regulatory body has declared, as the Communist Party seeks to tighten its grip on religion. Flags should be hung in a “prominent position” in all mosque courtyards, the China Islamic Association said…
The Chinese government has rejected a diplomatic demand from a group of Western countries, including Canada, to discuss issues related to the Xinjiang region and conditions for the largely-Muslim Uyghur population there. A new academic report, meanwhile, suggests the number of people detained in Xinjiang facilities used for political re-education appears to be in the…
Beijing, China (CNN)More than a million Chinese Communist officials are being dispatched to live with local families in the western region of Xinjiang, a move seen as a sign of the government’s increasingly tightened grip over the area’s predominantly Uyghur Muslim population. The so-called “home stays,” announced by the government, target farmer households in southern…
