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1 1 (September 22, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govemyh0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Resear h Service infornmIrn u leilativ debt sin 1914 Updated September 22, 2023 China Primer: Uyghurs Uyghurs (also spelled Uighurs) are a Muslim ethnic minority group living primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China (PRC or China). They have garnered the attention of U.S. policymakers, particularly since 2018 following reports of the mass internment of Uyghurs in reeducation centers. The facilities were part of an ongoing government effort to systematically transform the thought and behavior of Uyghurs and forcefully assimilate them into PRC society, which some observers say is destroying 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 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. PRC officials refer to Xinjiang as a core hub for China's Belt and Road Initiative, which involves Chinese-backed infrastructure projects and energy development in neighboring Central and South Asia. Disvuted Ar a I 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 Xinjiang; they now make up less than half of the region's population of 26 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 42% of the XUAR population and the majority in Urumqi, the regional capital. Since 2017, the Xinjiang government has carried out a campaign to forcefully reduce birth rates or illegal births among Uyghurs and other minority groups. Since an outbreak of Uyghur demonstrations and interethnic unrest in 2009, and sporadic clashes involving Uyghurs and Xinjiang security personnel that spiked between 2013 and 2015, PRC leaders have carried out large scale criminal arrests and intensive security measures in the XUAR, 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. Forced Assmn-ation Since 2017, in tandem with a 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. Some experts contend the PRC government has used counterterrorism as a pretext for carrying out assimilation policies and mass detentions in Xinjiang. The XUAR government enacted a law in 2017 that prohibits expressions of extremification, and placed restrictions upon dress and grooming, traditional Uyghur customs, and adherence to Islamic dietary laws (halal). Thousands of mosques in Xinjiang have been closed, demolished, or Sinicized, whereby Islamic motifs and Arabic writings have been removed. The Xinjiang government has placed nearly half a million Uyghur and other minority children in state-run boarding schools, and has banned the use of Uyghur language in instruction in all schools in the XUAR. Mass Internment Between 2017 and 2019, XUAR authorities, at the behest of Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, arbitrarily detained over 1 million ethnic Uyghur and other Muslims in reeducation centers. Detainees generally were not accused of crimes, but rather were held on the basis of past religious, cultural, scholarly, social, and online activities, as well as foreign travel, that the government later deemed extremist, pre-criminal, or potentially terrorist. Detainees were compelled to renounce many of their Islamic beliefs and customs as a condition for their release. Treatment in the centers reportedly included food deprivation, psychological pressure, sexual abuse, medical neglect, torture, and forced labor. Leaked Xinjiang police files, which included thousands of detainee records and images, important party directives, and police protocols, revealed the prison-like nature of the reeducation centers.

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