The Xinjiang Police Files

The Xinjiang Police Files

Subject : International relations

Section : Mapping

Context: The Xinjiang Police Files’, published this week by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation with cooperation from 13 media outlets from 10 countries, have given the world an inside view of China’s “re-education camps” and the “prison-like” conditions that Uighur Muslims are being subjected to inside them.

Concept –

• The Uighurs are a predominantly Muslim minority Turkic ethnic group, whose origins can be traced to Central and East Asia.
• The Uighurs speak their own language, similar to Turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.
• The Uighurs are considered to be one of the 55 officially recognized ethnic minority communities in China.
• However, China recognises the community only as a regional minority and rejects that they are an indigenous group.
• Currently, the largest population of the Uighur ethnic community lives in Xinjiang region of China.
• A significant population of Uighurs also lives in the neighbouring Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
• Xinjiang is technically an autonomous region within China — its largest region, rich in minerals, and sharing borders with eight countries, including India, Pakistan, Russia and Afghanistan.

Where is Xinjiang?

• Xinjiang lies in the north-west of China and is the country’s largest region.
• Like Tibet, it is autonomous, meaning – in theory – it has some powers of self-governance.
• But in practice, both regions are subjected to major restrictions by the central government.
• Xinjiang is a mostly desert region and produces about a fifth of the world’s cotton.
• In December 2020, research seen by the BBC showed that up to half a million people were being forced to pick cotton in Xinjiang. There is evidence that new factories have been built within the grounds of the re-education camps.
• The region is also rich in oil and natural gas and because of its proximity to Central Asia and Europe is seen by Beijing as an important trade link.
• In the early 20th Century, the Uyghurs briefly declared independence for the region but it was brought under the complete control of China’s new Communist government in 1949.