Updated June 22, 2020
Uyghurs in China
Uyghurs (also spelled “Uighurs”) are an ethnic group living
separatism and religious extremism.” PRC official data
primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
indicates that criminal arrests in Xinjiang increased from
(XUAR) in the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) far
approximately 14,000 in 2013 to 228,000 in 2017.
northwest. Uyghurs speak a Turkic language and practice a
moderate form of Sunni Islam. The XUAR, often referred
Two prominent Uyghurs serving life sentences for state
to simply as Xinjiang (pronounced “SHIN-jyahng”), is a
security crimes are Ilham Tohti (convicted in 2014), a
provincial-level administrative region which comprises
Uyghur economics professor who had maintained a website
about one-sixth of China’s total land area and borders eight
related to Uyghur issues, and Gulmira Imin (convicted in
countries. The region is rich in minerals, produces over
2010), who had managed a Uyghur language website and
80% of China’s cotton, and has China’s largest coal and
participated in the 2009 protests. In September 2017,
natural gas reserves and a fifth of its oil reserves. The
former Xinjiang University President Tashpolat Teyip, an
XUAR is a strategic region for the PRC’s Belt and Road
ethnic Uyghur, was convicted of separatism in a secret trial
Initiative, which includes Chinese-backed infrastructure
and received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve. His
projects and energy development in neighboring Central
status is unknown.
and South Asia.
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 face
veils, beards and other grooming, the practice of 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have been replaced by traditional Chinese roofs, and

Islamic motifs and Arabic writings have been removed.
Sources: CRS using U.S. Department of State Boundaries; Esri;
Global Administrative Areas; DeLorme; NGA.
China’s new religious policies also have placed greater
restrictions on the Hui, another Muslim minority group in
All or parts of the area comprising Xinjiang have been
China who number around 11 million, although these have
under the political control or influence of Chinese,
been less severe than those placed on the Uyghurs. The Hui
Mongols, and Russians for long periods of the region’s
are more geographically dispersed and culturally
documented history, along with periods of Turkic or
assimilated than the Uyghurs, are generally physically
Uyghur rule. Uyghurs played a role in the establishment of
indistinguishable from Hans, and do not speak a non-
two short-lived East Turkestan Republics in the 1930s and
Chinese language.
1940s. The PRC asserted control over Xinjiang in 1949 and
established the XUAR in 1955.
With the apparent strong backing of Communist Party
General Secretary Xi Jinping, beginning in 2016, the new
Uyghurs once were the predominant ethnic group in the
Communist Party Secretary of the XUAR, former Tibet
XUAR; they now constitute roughly 45% of the region’s
Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, stepped up security
population of 24 million, or around 10.5 million, as many
measures aimed at the Uyghur population. Such actions
Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, have
have included the installation of thousands of neighborhood
migrated there, particularly to the provincial capital,
police kiosks, more intrusive monitoring of Internet use,
Urumqi. Many Uyghurs complain that Hans have benefitted
and the collection of biometric data for identification
disproportionately from economic development in Xinjiang.
purposes. The central government sent an estimated one
Human Rights Issues
million officials and state workers from outside Xinjiang,
mostly ethnic Han, to live temporarily in the homes of
Since an outbreak of demonstrations and ethnic unrest in
Uyghurs to assess their loyalty to the Communist Party.
2009, and clashes involving Uyghurs and Xinjiang security
personnel that spiked between 2013 and 2015, PRC leaders
have sought to “stabilize” the XUAR through more
intensive security measures aimed at combatting “terrorism,
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Uyghurs in China
Mass Internment
In October 2019, the State Department announced visa
According to some estimates, since 2017, Xinjiang
restrictions against an unspecified number of Chinese
authorities have arbitrarily detained approximately 1.5
government and Communist Party officials who are
million Turkic Muslims, mostly ethnic Uyghurs and a
believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the detention
smaller number of Kazakhs, in “reeducation camps.” PRC
or abuse of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang.
officials describe the Xinjiang facilities as “vocational
education and training centers” where “trainees” study
On June 17, 2020, President Trump signed the Uyghur
Chinese, learn job skills, undergo “de-extremization” and
Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 into law (P.L. 116-145).
be “cured of ideological infection.” Some may have
The act aims to impose visa and economic sanctions on
engaged in religious and ethnic cultural practices that the
PRC officials determined to be responsible for human rights
government now perceives as extremist, or as manifesting
abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups
“strongly religious” views or thoughts that could lead to the
in Xinjiang. The act also mandates the Department of State,
spread of religious extremism or terrorism. Detainees
the Director of National Intelligence, and the Federal
reportedly are compelled to renounce many of their Islamic
Bureau of Investigation, respectively, to submit reports to
beliefs and customs and to undergo self-criticisms.
relevant Congressional committees on the following:
According to some former detainees, treatment and
human rights abuses, including detention and forced labor,
conditions in the camps include crowded and unsanitary
against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the XUAR;
conditions, forced labor, food deprivation, beatings, and
the security and economic implications posed to the United
sexual abuse.
States by PRC policies in Xinjiang, including a list of
Chinese companies that are involved in constructing or
In July 2019, Xinjiang officials claimed that most detainees
operating internment camps or producing mass surveillance
had been released. Many Uyghurs living abroad, however,
equipment for Xinjiang; and U.S. efforts to protect Uyghur
say that they still have not heard from missing relatives in
Americans and ethnic Uyghurs from China legally studying
Xinjiang. Over 400 prominent Uyghur intellectuals
and working in the United States from harassment or
reportedly have been detained or their whereabouts are
intimidation by officials or agents of the PRC government.
unknown. Some detainees have received prison sentences.
Pending legislation includes the Uyghur Forced Labor
Forced and Involuntary Labor
Prevention Act (S. 3471 and H.R. 6210), which among
According to some reports, the government has begun to
other provisions would create a presumption of denial of
move large numbers of Uyghurs, including many former
import into the United States of “significant goods, wares,
detainees, into textile, apparel, and other labor-intensive
articles and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured
industries in Xinjiang and other PRC provinces. Uyghurs
wholly or in part” in Xinjiang or by certain Xinjiang-related
who refuse to accept such employment may be threatened
entities pursuant to the forced labor import ban in Section
with detention. They continue to be heavily monitored
307 of the Tariff Act of 1930.
outside of work, and are required to attend political study
classes at night. In March 2020, the Congressional-
Alleged Terrorism
Executive Commission on China released a report, “Global
The PRC government has attributed numerous deadly
Supply Chains, Forced Labor, and the Xinjiang Uyghur
incidents in the XUAR to the East Turkestan Islamic
Autonomous Region.” A study by the Australian Strategic
Movement (ETIM), which it portrays as a Uyghur separatist
Policy Institute identified nearly 120 Chinese and foreign
and terrorist group with ties to global terrorist
companies, including global brands, that the institute
organizations. The U.S. government designated ETIM as a
alleges directly or indirectly benefit from Uyghur labor in
terrorist organization under Executive Order 13224 in 2002
potentially abusive circumstances.
(to block terrorist financing) and placed ETIM on the
Terrorist Exclusion List in 2004 (to prevent the entry of
Selected U.S. Responses
terrorists into the United States). ETIM is not on the
On October 1, 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Department of State’s narrower “Foreign Terrorist
announced that it had blocked certain shipments of goods
Organization” (FTO) list. Roughly 100 Uyghurs from
suspected of having been made with forced labor from five
China entered Islamic State territory during 2013-2014,
countries, including China, pursuant to Section 307 of the
according to the New America Foundation.
Tariff Act of 1930. The Chinese goods, sportswear made
for a U.S. company, were suspected of using forced labor
At its height, ETIM, whose members reportedly spent time
from a Xinjiang reeducation camp.
in Afghanistan and Pakistan from the late-1990s to the mid-
2000s, was a small, loosely organized and poorly financed
In October 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce
group that lacked weapons and had little if any contact with
announced that it would add 28 PRC entities to the Bureau
global jihadist groups, according to some experts. The U.S.
of Industry and Security (BIS) “entity list” under the Export
government “identified sufficient evidence” to consider
Administration Regulations (EAR), for their connections to
three violent incidents in China purportedly involving
PRC human rights abuses against Uyghur and other Turkic
Uyghurs as terrorist attacks in 2014. The lack of available
Muslims in Xinjiang. The action imposes licensing
information in most other cases has made it difficult to
requirements prior to the sale or transfer of U.S. items to
verify PRC accounts of alleged terrorist activity. In 2019,
these entities. In May 2020, the Commerce Department
the Department of State reported that in 2018, there was a
placed an additional nine PRC entities on the list.
lack of independent evidence that ETIM is still active.
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Uyghurs in China

IF10281
Thomas Lum, Specialist in Asian Affairs


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https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF10281 · VERSION 36 · UPDATED

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