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1 1 (January 4, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govebeq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service ~ Inforrming the legislative debate since 1914 Updated January 4, 2021 Uyghurs in China Uyghurs (also spelled Uighurs) are a Muslim ethnic group living primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China (PRC). They have garnered the attention of U.S. policymakers, particularly since 2018 following reports of the mass internment of Uyghurs in reeducation centers. The detentions are part of a PRC government effort to systematically transform the thought and behavior of Uyghurs and forcefully assimilate them into Chinese society, which some observers believe may result in the destruction of Uyghur culture and identity. The U.S. government has responded by implementing targeted restrictions on trade with Xinjiang and imposing visa and economic sanctions on some PRC officials. Uyghurs speak a Turkic language and practice a moderate form of Sunni Islam. The XUAR, often referred to simply as Xinjiang (pronounced SHIN-jyahng), is a provincial- level administrative region which comprises about one- sixth of China's total land area and borders eight countries. The region is rich in minerals, produces over 80% of China's cotton, and has China's largest coal and natural gas reserves and a fifth of its oil reserves. The XUAR is a strategic region for the PRC's Belt and Road Initiative, which involves Chinese-backed infrastructure projects and energy development in neighboring Central and South Asia. I Dsouted Ae a Sources: CRS, using U.S. Department of State Boundaries; Esri; Global Administrative Areas; DeLorme; NGA. All or parts of the area comprising Xinjiang have been under the political control or influence of Chinese, Mongols, and Russians for long spans of the region's documented history, along with periods of Turkic or Uyghur rule. Uyghurs played a role in the establishment of two short-lived, semi-autonomous East Turkestan Republics in the 1930s and 1940s. The PRC asserted control over Xinjiang in 1949 and established the XUAR in 1955. Uyghurs once were the predominant ethnic group in the XUAR; they now constitute roughly 45% of the region's population of 24 million, or around 10.5 million. The government long has provided economic incentives for Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, to migrate to the region; Hans now constitute about 40% of the XUAR population and form the majority in Urumqi, the capital. Since an outbreak of Uyghur demonstrations and ethnic unrest in 2009, and sporadic clashes involving Uyghurs and Xinjiang security personnel that spiked between 2013 and 2015, PRC leaders have sought to stabilize the XUAR through large scale criminal arrests and more intensive security measures aimed at combatting terrorism, separatism and religious extremism. Three violent incidents in China in 2014 purportedly carried out by Uyghurs against Han civilians were described by some outside observers as acts of terrorism. Some experts argue that the PRC government has used counterterrorism as a pretext for carrying out forced assimilation policies. Forced Assimilation Since 2017, in tandem with a new national policy referred to as Sinicization, XUAR authorities have instituted measures to assimilate Uyghurs into Han Chinese society and reduce the influences of Uyghur, Islamic, and Arabic cultures and languages. The XUAR government enacted a law in 2017 that prohibits expressions of extremification and placed restrictions, often imposed arbitrarily, upon dress and grooming, traditional Uyghur customs, and adherence to Islamic dietary laws (halal). Thousands of mosques in Xinjiang reportedly have been demolished or Sinicized, whereby Islamic motifs and Arabic writings have been removed. There have been reports of government campaigns to forcefully reduce birth rates among Uyghurs and to promote marriages between Uyghurs and Hans. Beginning in 2016, Chen Quanguo, the newly appointed Communist Party Secretary of the XUAR, stepped up security and surveillance measures aimed at the Uyghur population. Such actions included the installation of thousands of neighborhood police kiosks, more intrusive monitoring of Internet use, and the collection of biometric data for identification purposes. The central government sent an estimated one million officials and state workers from outside Xinjiang, mostly ethnic Han, to live temporarily in Uyghur homes to assess their compliance with government policies. Mass Internment By some estimates, between 2017 and 2020, Xinjiang authorities arbitrarily detained roughly 1.5 million Turkic Muslims, mostly Uyghurs and a smaller number of ethnic Kazakhs, in reeducation centers. Detainees, some of whom may have engaged in religious, cultural, or scholarly activities that the government now deems as extremist, are compelled to renounce many of their Islamic beliefs and customs and political views as a condition for their release. They reportedly are forced to undergo self-criticisms and express their love of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ttps://crsreports.congress.gc

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