Updated March 25, 2020
Uyghurs in China
Uyghurs (also spelled “Uighurs”) are an ethnic group living
intensive security measures aimed at combatting “terrorism,
primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
separatism and religious extremism.” PRC official data
(XUAR) in the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) far
indicates that criminal arrests in Xinjiang increased from
northwest. Uyghurs speak a Turkic language and practice a
approximately 14,000 in 2013 to 228,000 in 2017.
moderate form of Sunni Islam. The XUAR, often referred
to simply as Xinjiang (pronounced “SHIN-jyahng”), is a
Two prominent Uyghurs serving life sentences for state
provincial-level administrative region which comprises
security crimes are Ilham Tohti (convicted in 2014), a
about one-sixth of China’s total land area and borders eight
Uyghur economics professor who had maintained a website
countries. The region is rich in minerals, produces over
related to Uyghur issues, and Gulmira Imin (convicted in
80% of China’s cotton, and has China’s largest coal and
2010), who had managed a Uyghur language website and
natural gas reserves and a fifth of its oil reserves. The
participated in the 2009 demonstrations. In September
XUAR is a strategic region for the PRC’s Belt and Road
2017, former Xinjiang University President Tashpolat
Initiative, which includes Chinese-backed infrastructure
Tiyip, an ethnic Uyghur, was convicted of separatism in a
projects and energy development in neighboring Central
secret trial and received a death sentence with a two-year
and South Asia.
reprieve. His status is unknown.
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 face veils,
beards and other grooming, the practice of some traditional
Uyghur customs, and adherence to Islamic dietary laws
(halal). Thousands of mosques in Xinjiang reportedly have
been demolished as part of what the government calls a
“mosque rectification” campaign; others have been
“Sinicized”—minarets have been taken down, onion domes

have been replaced by traditional Chinese roofs, and
Sources: CRS using U.S. Department of State Boundaries; Esri;
Islamic motifs and Arabic writings have been removed.
Global Administrative Areas; DeLorme; NGA.
China’s new religious policies also have placed greater
All or parts of the area comprising Xinjiang have been
restrictions on the Hui, another Muslim minority group in
under the political control or influence of Chinese,
China who number around 11 million, although these have
Mongols, and Russians for long periods of the region’s
been less severe than those placed on the Uyghurs. The Hui
documented history, along with periods of Turkic or
are more geographically dispersed and culturally
Uyghur rule. Uyghurs played a role in the establishment of
assimilated than the Uyghurs, are generally physically
two short-lived East Turkestan Republics in the 1930s and
indistinguishable from Hans, and do not speak a non-
1940s. The PRC asserted control over Xinjiang in 1949 and
Chinese language.
established the XUAR in 1955.
With the apparent strong backing of Communist Party
Uyghurs once were the predominant ethnic group in the
General Secretary Xi Jinping, beginning in 2016, the new
XUAR; they now constitute roughly 45% of the region’s
Communist Party Secretary to the XUAR, former Tibet
population of 24 million, or around 10.5 million, as many
Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, stepped up security
Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, have
measures aimed at the Uyghur population. Such actions
migrated there, particularly to the provincial capital,
have included the installation of thousands of neighborhood
Urumqi. Many Uyghurs complain that Hans have benefitted
police kiosks, more intrusive monitoring of Internet use,
disproportionately from economic development in Xinjiang.
and the collection of biometric data for identification
purposes. The central government sent an estimated one
Human Rights Issues
million officials and state workers from outside Xinjiang,
Since an outbreak of demonstrations and ethnic unrest in
mostly ethnic Han, to live temporarily in the homes of
2009, and clashes involving Uyghurs and Xinjiang security
Uyghurs to assess their loyalty to the Communist Party.
personnel that spiked between 2013 and 2015, PRC leaders
have sought to “stabilize” the XUAR through more
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Uyghurs in China
Mass Internment
of Chinese government and Communist Party officials who
According to some estimates, since 2017, Xinjiang
are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the
authorities have arbitrarily detained approximately 1.5
detention or abuse of Uyghurs or other members of Muslim
million Turkic Muslims, mostly ethnic Uyghurs and a
minority groups in Xinjiang.
smaller number of Kazakhs, in “reeducation camps.” PRC
officials describe the Xinjiang facilities as “vocational
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has held two
education and training centers” where “trainees” study
hearings on human rights issues in China during the 116th
Chinese, learn job skills, and undergo “de-extremization”
Congress, in which witnesses provided accounts of the
and are “cured of ideological infection.” Some may have
mass internment of Uyghurs. In October 2019, the
engaged in religious and ethnic cultural practices that the
Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC)
government now perceives as extremist, or as manifesting
held a hearing entitled “Forced Labor, Mass Internment,
“strongly religious” views or thoughts that could lead to the
and Social Control in Xinjiang.” In March 2020, the CECC
spread of religious extremism or terrorism. Detainees
held a roundtable entitled “Global Supply Chains, Forced
reportedly are compelled to renounce many of their Islamic
Labor, and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” and
beliefs and customs and to undergo self-criticisms.
released a report by the same name.
According to some former detainees, treatment and
conditions in the camps include crowded and unsanitary
The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (S. 178) passed in
conditions, forced labor, food deprivation, beatings, and
the Senate on September 11, 2019, and in the House on
sexual abuse.
December 3, 2019, with an amendment to the Senate bill.
The act would impose visa and economic sanctions
In July 2019, Xinjiang officials claimed that most detainees
pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Act (subtitle F of P.L.
had “returned to society.” Many Uyghurs living abroad,
114-328) upon PRC officials responsible for human rights
however, say that they still have not heard from missing
abuses in Xinjiang, and it would enact restrictions on the
relatives in Xinjiang. Over 400 prominent Uyghur
U.S. export of items that “provide a critical capability” to
intellectuals reportedly have been detained or their
the PRC government “to suppress individual privacy,
whereabouts are unknown. Some detainees have received
freedom, and other basic human rights.” The Uyghur
prison sentences.
Forced Labor Prevention Act (S. 3471 and H.R. 6210),
introduced in March 2020, would in part invoke Section
Forced and Involuntary Labor
307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and thereby restrict the import
According to some reports, the government has begun to
of any “goods, wares, articles and merchandise mined,
move large numbers of Uyghurs, including many former
produced, or manufactured wholly or in part” in Xinjiang.
detainees, into textile, apparel, and other labor-intensive
industries in Xinjiang and other PRC provinces. Uyghurs
Alleged Terrorism
who refuse to accept such employment may be threatened
The PRC government has attributed numerous deadly
with detention. They continue to be heavily monitored
incidents in the XUAR to the East Turkestan Islamic
outside of work, and are required to attend political study
Movement (ETIM), which it portrays as a Uyghur separatist
classes at night. A study by the Australian Strategic Policy
and terrorist group with ties to global terrorist
Institute identified nearly 120 Chinese and foreign
organizations. The U.S. government designated ETIM as a
companies, including global brands, that the institute
terrorist organization under Executive Order 13224 in 2002
alleges directly or indirectly benefit from Uyghur labor in
(to block terrorist financing) and placed ETIM on the
potentially abusive circumstances.
Terrorist Exclusion List in 2004 (to prevent the entry of
terrorists into the United States). ETIM is not on the
Selected U.S. Responses
Department of State’s narrower “Foreign Terrorist
Trump Administration officials have openly condemned
Organization” (FTO) list. Roughly 100 Uyghurs from
PRC forced-assimilation policies and the mass, arbitrary
China entered Islamic State territory during 2013-2014,
detention of Uyghurs. On October 1, 2019, U.S. Customs
according to the New America Foundation.
and Border Protection announced that it had blocked certain
shipments of goods suspected of having been made with
At its height, ETIM, whose members reportedly spent time
forced labor from five countries, including China, pursuant
in Afghanistan and Pakistan from the late-1990s to the mid-
to Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The Chinese
2000s, was a small, loosely organized and poorly financed
goods, sportswear made for a U.S. company, were
group that lacked weapons and had little if any contact with
suspected of using forced labor from a Xinjiang reeducation
global jihadist groups, according to some experts. The U.S.
camp.
government “identified sufficient evidence” to consider
three violent incidents in China purportedly involving
On October 7, 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce
Uyghurs as terrorist attacks in 2014. The lack of available
announced that it would add 28 PRC entities to the Bureau
information in most other cases has made it difficult to
of Industry and Security (BIS) “entity list” under the Export
verify PRC accounts of alleged terrorist activity. In 2019,
Administration Regulations (EAR), for their connections to
the Department of State reported that in 2018, there was a
PRC human rights abuses against Uyghur and other Turkic
lack of independent evidence that ETIM is still active.
Muslims in Xinjiang. The action imposes licensing
requirements prior to the sale or transfer of U.S. items to
Thomas Lum, Specialist in Asian Affairs
these entities. On October 9, 2019, the State Department
announced visa restrictions against an unspecified number
IF10281
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Uyghurs in China


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https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF10281 · VERSION 34 · UPDATED

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