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1 1 (January 11, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govehhy0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Cv ~igr UpdatedJanuary 11, 2022 China Primer: Uyghurs 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 garneredthe attention of U.S. policymakers, particularly since 2018 following reports ofthe mass internmentofUyghurs inreeducation centers. The detentions are part of a PRC government effort to systematically transformthe thought andbehavior of Uyghurs and forcefully assimilate theminto Chinese society, which some observers believe is destroying Uyghur culture and identity. The U.S. governmenthas respondedby implementing targeted res trictions on trade with Xinjiang and imposing visa andeconomic sanctions on some PRC officials. Uyghurs speaka Turkic language andpractice a moderate form of Sunni Islam. The XUAR, often referred to simply as Xinjiang (pronounced SHIN-jyahng), is a provincial- level administrative region that 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. Xinjiang is a strategic region for the PRC's Belt and Road Initiative, which involves Chinese-backed infrastructure projects and energy development in neighboringCentralandSouthAsia. I Di nuted Ar I Sources: CRS, using U.S. Department of State Boundaries; Esri; Global Admin istrative Areas; DeLorme; NGA- All or parts of the area comprising Xinjiang have been under the political controlor influence ofChinese, Mongols, and Russians for long spans of the region's documentedhistory, along with periods of Turkic or Uyghurrule. Uyghurs played arole in the establishment of two short-lived, semi-autonomous East Turkestan Republics in the 1930s and 1940s. The PRC asserted controlover Xinjiang in 1949 and established the XUARin 1955. Uyghurs once were the predominantethnic group in the XUAR; they now make up roughly half ofthe region's population of24.8 million, according to official sources. The government long has provided economic incentives for Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, to migrate to the region; Hans now constitute up to 40% of the XUAR population and the majority in Urumqi, the capital. Since an outbreakof Uyghur demonstrations and ethnic unrest in 2009, and sporadic clashes involving Uyghurs and Xinjiang security personnelthat spiked between 2013 and 2015, PRC leaders have carried out large scale criminal arrests and intensive security measures in the XUAR, ained at combatting terrorism, separatismand religious extremism. Three violent incidents in China in 2014 purportedly carried outby Uyghurs against Han civilians were described by some outside observers as acts of terrorism, and some experts argue that the PRC governnrnt has used counterterrorismas a pretext for carrying out forced assimilation policies and mass detentions. F orced Assimiation Since 2017, in tandemwith a nationalpolicy 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 XUARgovernmentenactedalawin 2017 that prohibits expressions of extremification and placed restrictions upon dress and grooming, traditional Uyghur customs, and adherence to Islamic dietary laws (halal). Thousands ofmosques in Xinjiang reportedly have been closed, demolished, orSinicized, whereby Islamic motifs and Arabic writings have been removed. The XUARhas carried out a campaignto forcefully reduce birth rates or illegal births among Uyghurs. Furthermore, forced family separations among Uyghurshavebecome widespread. Nearly half a million Uyghur and other minority children in Xinjiang reportedly attend state-run boarding schools, where they are taught in Mandarin, the national language, rather than their ethnic language. Many Uyghurs have been assigned to employmentin factories that are far from their families and communities. In 2016, when Chen Quanguo was appointed Communist Party Secretary of the XUAR, the government stepped up security and surveillancemeasures aimed at the Uyghur population. Such actions included the installation of thousands ofneighborhoodpolice kiosks andubiquitous placement ofsurveillance cameras, collection ofbiometric data for identification purposes, and more intrusive monitoring ofInternetuse. The centralgovernment sent an estimated onemillion officials from outside Xinjiang, mostly ethnic Han, to live temporarily in Uyghur homes to assess their compliance with government policies. Mass --ternment Between 2017 and 2020, Xinjiang authorities arbitrarily detainedbetween 1 million and 1.8 million Muslims by some estimates, mostly Uyghurs and smallernumbers of

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