Updated January 11, 2022
China Primer: Uyghurs
Uyghurs (also spelled “Uighurs”) are a Muslim ethnic
to the region; Hans now constitute up to 40% of the XUAR
group living primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
population and the majority in Urumqi, the capital.
Region (XUAR) in the far northwest of the People’s
Republic of China (PRC). They have garnered the attention
Since an outbreak of Uyghur demonstrations and ethnic
of U.S. policymakers, particularly since 2018 following
unrest in 2009, and sporadic clashes involving Uyghurs and
reports of the mass internment of Uyghurs in “reeducation”
Xinjiang security personnel that spiked between 2013 and
centers. The detentions are part of a PRC government effort
2015, PRC leaders have carried out large scale criminal
to systematically transform the thought and behavior of
arrests and intensive security measures in the XUAR, aimed
Uyghurs and forcefully assimilate them into Chinese
at combatting “terrorism, separatism and religious
society, which some observers believe is destroying Uyghur
extremism.” Three violent incidents in China in 2014
culture and identity. The U.S. government has responded by
purportedly carried out by Uyghurs against Han civilians
implementing targeted restrictions on trade with Xinjiang
were described by some outside observers as acts of
and imposing visa and economic sanctions on some PRC
terrorism, and some experts argue that the PRC government
officials.
has used counterterrorism as a pretext for carrying out
forced assimilation policies and mass detentions.
Uyghurs speak a Turkic language and practice a moderate
form of Sunni Islam. The XUAR, often referred to simply
Forced Assimilation
as Xinjiang (pronounced “SHIN-jyahng”), is a provincial-
Since 2017, in tandem with a national policy referred to as
level administrative region that comprises about one-sixth
“Sinicization,” XUAR authorities have instituted measures
of China’s total land area and borders eight countries. The
to assimilate Uyghurs into Han Chinese society and reduce
region is rich in minerals, produces over 80% of China’s
the influences of Uyghur, Islamic, and Arabic cultures and
cotton, and has China’s largest coal and natural gas reserves
languages. The XUAR government enacted a law in 2017
and a fifth of its oil reserves. Xinjiang is a strategic region
that prohibits “expressions of extremification” and placed
for the PRC’s Belt and Road Initiative, which involves
restrictions upon dress and grooming, traditional Uyghur
Chinese-backed infrastructure projects and energy
customs, and adherence to Islamic dietary laws (halal).
development in neighboring Central and South Asia.
Thousands of mosques in Xinjiang reportedly have been
closed, demolished, or “Sinicized,” whereby Islamic motifs
and Arabic writings have been removed.
The XUAR has carried out a campaign to forcefully reduce
birth rates or “illegal births” among Uyghurs. Furthermore,
forced family separations among Uyghurs have become
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 employment in factories
that are far from their families and communities.

In 2016, when Chen Quanguo was appointed Communist
Sources: CRS, using U.S. Department of State Boundaries; Esri;
Party Secretary of the XUAR, the government stepped up
Global Administrative Areas; DeLorme; NGA.
security and surveillance measures aimed at the Uyghur
population. Such actions included the installation of
All or parts of the area comprising Xinjiang have been
thousands of neighborhood police kiosks and ubiquitous
under the political control or influence of Chinese,
placement of surveillance cameras, collection of biometric
Mongols, and Russians for long spans of the region’s
data for identification purposes, and more intrusive
documented history, along with periods of Turkic or
monitoring of Internet use. The central government sent an
Uyghur rule. Uyghurs played a role in the establishment of
estimated one million officials from outside Xinjiang,
two short-lived, semi-autonomous East Turkestan
mostly ethnic Han, to live temporarily in Uyghur homes to
Republics in the 1930s and 1940s. The PRC asserted
assess their compliance with government policies .
control over Xinjiang in 1949 and established the XUAR in
1955. Uyghurs once were the predominant ethnic group in
Mass Internment
the XUAR; they now make up roughly half of the region’s
Between 2017 and 2020, Xinjiang authorities arbitrarily
population of 24.8 million, according to official sources.
detained between 1 million and 1.8 million Muslims by
The government long has provided economic incentives for
some estimates, mostly Uyghurs and smaller numbers of
Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, to migrate
https://crsreports.congress.gov

---

China Primer: Uyghurs
ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz as well as Hui, in “reeducation”
restrictions on U.S. investments in certain PRC companies
centers. Held on the basis of past religious, cultural,
involved in the surveillance and tracking of religious and
scholarly, social, and online activities that the government
ethnic minorities in China.
now deems as extremist, also referred to as “pre-criminal
offenses,” detainees were compelled to renounce many of
Import Restrictions. Since October 2019, U.S. Customs
their Islamic beliefs and customs as a condition for their
and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a series of
release. According to some former detainees, treatment and
announcements blocking the import of goods suspected of
conditions in the centers included factory labor, crowded
involving Xinjiang-related forced labor pursuant to the
and unsanitary conditions, food deprivation, psychological
forced labor import ban under Section 307 of the Tariff Act
pressure, sexual abuse, and medical neglect and torture,
of 1930. In December 2021, Congress passed and President
sometimes resulting in deaths of detainees while in the
Biden signed into law P.L. 117-78. Among other
camps or soon after their release. Since 2019, the XUAR
provisions, the law creates a presumption that goods
government has released some detainees, sent others to
produced or manufactured in Xinjiang, or by entities with
factory labor, and kept many in pre-trial detention facilities
certain ties to Xinjiang, are made with forced labor, unless
or prosecuted them as criminals and imprisoned them.
CBP affirmatively determines otherwise.
Forced Labor
Export Controls. Since October 2019, the U.S.
The PRC government has pressured many Uyghurs,
Department of Commerce has added 67 PRC companies
including former detainees, into accepting employment in
and public security entities to the Bureau of Industry and
textile, apparel, agricultural, consumer electronics, and
Security (BIS) “entity list” under the Export Administration
other labor-intensive industries, in Xinjiang and other
Regulations (EAR) specifically due to their connection to
provinces. Some factories utilizing Uyghur labor are tied to
human rights abuses or repression in Xinjiang. A number of
global supply chains. Uyghurs who refuse to accept such
other PRC entities have also been added, due in whole or in
employment, which often involves heavy surveillance and
part, to their connection to human rights abuses in China.
political indoctrination, may face detention.
The actions impose licensing requirements prior to the sale
or transfer of certain U.S. items to these entities, with a
Selected U.S. Responses
presumption of license denial for most items.
Beijing Winter Olympics. In December 2021, the Biden
Administration announced that it would not send a U.S.
Atrocities Determination. On January 19, 2021, the State
official delegation to the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing,
Department announced that it had determined that the PRC
due to “the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against
had committed crimes against humanity and genocide in
humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.” U.S.
Xinjiang, and called on multilateral and juridical bodies to
athletes, however, would still be allowed to compete.
pursue accountability. The Biden Administration has
indicated concurrence with this determination.
Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act. On June 17, 2020,

former President Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights
East Turkestan Islamic Movement
Policy Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-145) into law. The act aims to
The PRC government has attributed some past deadly
impose sanctions on PRC officials determined to be
incidents in the XUAR to the East Turkestan Islamic
responsible for human rights abuses against Uyghurs and
Movement (ETIM), which it portrays as a Uyghur separatist
other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang. The act also
and terrorist group with ties to global terrorist
mandated a number of reports from the executive branch on
organizations. At its height in the late-1990s and early-
subjects including the extent of human rights violations and
2000s, ETIM was a small, loosely organized and poorly
abuses in Xinjiang, the implications for U.S. security and
financed group based in Afghanistan and Pakistan that
economic interests, and U.S. efforts to protect Uyghur-
lacked weapons and had little contact with global jihadist
Americans and ethnic Uyghurs from China residing in the
organizations, according to some experts. The Turkestan
United States from harassment or intimidation by officials
Islamic Party (TIP), which some reports refer to as the
or agents of the PRC government.
successor to ETIM, emerged around 2004. The U.S.
government designated ETIM as a terrorist organization
Targeted Sanctions and Investment Restrictions. The
under Executive Order 13224 in 2002 (to block terrorist
United States has to date publicly designated 10 current or
financing) and in 2004 placed ETIM on the Terrorist
former PRC officials for sanctions in relation to human
Exclusion List (TEL), which bars members of terrorist
rights abuses in Xinjiang, pursuant to Executive Order
groups from entering the United States. The Trump
(E.O.) 13818, which implements and builds on the Global
Administration removed ETIM from the TEL in 2020,
Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Title XII,
stating that “for more than a decade, there has been no
Subtitle F of P.L. 114-328). Among those designated is
credible evidence that ETIM continues to exist.” United
XUAR Party Secretary Chen Quanguo. Also designated are
Nations sanctions monitors differ in their assessment,
two entities, the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau and the
reporting in 2021 that ETIM had a presence in Afghanistan
Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a state-run
and Syria.
paramilitary organization with major economic interests in
the XUAR. The State Department also has announced visa
Thomas Lum, Specialist in Asian Affairs
restrictions against Xinjiang officials and immediate family
Michael A. Weber, Analyst in Foreign Affairs
members pursuant to other authorities. The Treasury
IF10281
Department in recent months also has begun imposing
https://crsreports.congress.gov

---

China Primer: Uyghurs


Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to
congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress.
Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has
been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the
United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be
reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include
copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permissio n of the copyright holder if you
wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.

https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF10281 · VERSION 45 · UPDATED

---